Osama bin Laden’s ‘Bookshelf’ Reveals al Qaeda’s Long Game
When 113 new documents recovered in 2011 during the fatal raid on...
Horn of Africa
North Korean Ship Tests the Waters Near America’s Shores
It’s not often that North Korean-flagged freighters turn up near America’s shores, but when they do, they deserve attention. North Korea has a prolific record of arms smuggling, narco...
Op-eds
Al – Shabaab Strikes In Djibouti
Co-Authored by Henry Appel On Saturday evening, May 24, a Somali man and his female companion took their seats in La Chaumière, a restaurant in Djibouti’s capital p...
Op-eds
Successes and Failures of the U.S. and NATO Intervention in Libya
Download the full written testimony here (PDF). Ch...
Congressional Testimonies
The Middle East’s Disappearing Borders
“The last year was a good one for al Qaeda, and for jihadism more broadly,” ...
Op-eds
Interpreting Al Qaeda
The last year was a good one for al Qaeda, and for jihadism more broadly. Al Qaeda af...
Op-eds
‘Responsibility to Protect’ is No Basis for Bombing Syria
In the Saturday edition of the National Post, eminent human rights advocate Irwin Cotler wrote that “if mass atrocities in Syria are not a case for R2P [the Responsibility to Protect doctri...
Op-eds
Why We Should Be Watching the Gulf of Guinea
As Washington has assessed the implications of Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, a crisis has loomed in another critical maritime e...
Op-eds
Should We Invade Mali to Stop al-Qaeda? Look at Somalia First
The West is moving toward a military intervention in Mali, somewhat slowly yet entirely deliberately, due to concerns about al-Qaeda’s control of territory there. An October UN Security Cou...
Op-eds
A Blind Spot
Jihadi radicalisation and religious ideology One area of study that has significantly grown over the past decade is that of radicalisation. How do individuals come to be...
Op-eds
Reports of Al Qaeda’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Al Qaeda is returning to the shadows. The experiment by al-Shabab, al Qaeda's Somali affiliate, of attempting to govern a broad area in Somalia's south officially came to a close...
Op-eds
2 Eritrean Officials Designated for Supporting Shabaab
The US Treasury Department designated six supporters of Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, on July...
Op-eds
Shabaab Formally Joins al Qaeda
Shabaab and al Qaeda have announced their formal merger, according to a video disseminated online today and translated by the SITE Intelligence group. In the video, Mukhtar Abu al Zubayr (a.k.a....
Op-eds
US Drone Strike Kills 11 AQAP Leaders, Fighters: Report
Eleven terrorists, including four local commanders, are reported to have been killed in a US drone airstrike in a southern Yemeni province where al Qaeda's affiliate controls significant gro...
Op-eds
British Shabaab Operative Killed in Airstrike in Somalia
Shabaab said that a British national who was "from the early people who came to jihad in Somalia" was killed in a US drone airstrike. The slain operative was a senior al Qaeda leader in East Afri...
Op-eds
The Death of al Qaeda: Fawaz Gerges Edition
Few forms of writing are consistently less satisfying than “five myths” pieces. The genre, by its nature, tends toward shallow analysis and the propagation of conventional wisdom unde...
Op-eds
Jihadist Releases Bio of Yemeni al Qaeda Operative Killed in Somalia
A jihadist released a martyrdom statement for a seasoned al Qaeda operative who waged jihad in Bosnia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia; escaped from a prison in Yemen; and tra...
Op-eds
Terrorism and the Coming Decade
Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, US officials are speaking openly of Al Qaeda’s impending death. Defense secretary Leon Panetta declared in early July of this year that the US is “wi...
Op-eds
US Predators Kill 5 AQAP Fighters in Southern Yemen
Unmanned US Predators operated by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations command killed five al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters during an airstrike in southern Yemen yesterday....
Op-eds
Yemen Claims AQAP Cleric Anwar al Awlaki ‘Killed’ in Airstrike
Yemen's Defense Ministry claimed its forces killed Anwar al Awlaki, the American cleric who serves as an operational commander for al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen. Samir Khan, another Ame...