Underestimating al Qaeda
The United States and its allies are consumed by their battle with ISIS, but to many terrorism experts, al Qaeda remains a serious force to be reckoned with, one that is actually increasing i...
Al-Nusra Front
Obama’s Syria Policy Striptease
America’s settled policy of standing by while half a million Syrians have been killed, millions have become refugees, and large swaths of their country have been re...
Op-eds
A grim anniversary: 15 years after 9/11, the war against radical Islamist terrorism is not good
Imagine it's 15 years ago, immediately after the 9/11 attacks. You are told that in September 2016, a couple of major counterterrorism victories would be just around the corner. These impend...
Op-eds
Zawahiri’s Revenge
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham — which has now rebranded itself "the Islamic State" (IS) — is trying to position itself as the new leader of the global...
Op-eds
Rebranding Terror
On July 28, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, heretofore the emir of al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, ...
Op-eds
Boko Haram’s Doomed Marriage To The Islamic State
Co-written by Jacob Zenn. When the Nigerian jihadist group popularly known as Boko Haram publicly pl...
Op-eds
Bogus foreign-policy debates: How we’re helping our enemies fool us
World news has become complicated lately. Or has it? Consider these headlines: Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the leader of the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate group known as Jabhat al-Nusra...
Op-eds
Where U.S. Sees Crisis in Turkey, Iran Sees Opportunity
Iran was the first government to fully back Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Friday&rsqu...
Policy Briefs
Syria just got worse than the ‘worst-case scenario’
While the Republican National Convention was dominating headlines, the Obama administration’s management of the Syria crisis went from bad to worse. Secretary of State John Kerry l...
Op-eds
U.S.-Backed ‘Moderate’ Rebels Behead a Child Near Aleppo
Members of an American-backed rebel group in Syria beheaded a young child in a grisly execution video. The footage surfaced early Tuesday of members of Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki and a...
Op-eds
The Creeping Pakistanization of Turkey?
The ISIS attack on Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport hit Turkey at a difficult, yet hopeful time. The bombing came in the immediate aftermath of the Turkish government’s diplomatic U-tu...
Op-eds
Airport attack should have come as no surprise to Turkey
The attack on Istanbul’s airport was horrific. It was also steeped in irony. Istanbul’s airport is the overwhelming destination of choice for aspiring jihadists around the world who w...
Op-eds
You Can’t Start and Stop Jihadism at Will
The coordinated terrorist attack at the international airport in Istanbul on Tuesday is the latest in a rash of deadly attacks that have struck Turkey in the past 18 months. The Cipher Brief...
Op-eds
Reconsidering safe zones in Syria
The situation in Syria remains bleak, with no end in sight to its five-year civil war. President Bashar Assad’s forces and their Russian and Iranian backers continue to lay waste to rebel-h...
Op-eds
Boko Haram’s Buyer’s Remorse
When Boko Haram pledged loyalty to the Islamic State in March 2015, it seemed to signal that the jihadi world was bending in the direction of the self-proclaimed caliphate. At the time, Boko Hara...
Op-eds
Jihadists Under Investigation
The system was blinking red for months prior to the June 12 terrorist attack in Orlando. Since early 2015, the FBI has repeatedly warned the American public that the threat of violent attacks is...
Op-eds
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Erdogan?
Houston, we have a problem. A serious problem. Slowly, but inexorably, Turkey is headed off a cliff. The signposts ahead are bleak indeed. Despotism. Terrorism. Civil war. Just over the horizon,...
Op-eds
The Orlando Shooter’s Desire for ‘Martyrdom’
After each jihadist attack in the West, our society rehearses the same ritualistic debate over what the terrorists' motivations really are. It is true that "radicalization," as it is often d...
Op-eds
Treasury sanctions al Qaeda, Islamic State ‘financiers and facilitators’
The US Treasury Department announced terror designations for six jihadists yesterday. Five of them a...
Op-eds
Why Bashar al-Assad, the ‘Teflon Don’ of the Middle East, Can’t Be Touched
John Gotti may have once held the title, but the late Gambino crime family boss had nothing on the “Teflon Don” of the Middle East, Bashar Assad. Had Gotti li...