Managing Crises, the Least-Bad Option

Winter 2022 / Essays

Conflict management in the MENA region has little chance of succeeding as conflicts increasingly intersect and tensions driven by larger, regional triggers become even more unpredictable

Afghanistan and the New Taliban

January 17, 2022 / Global Forum

What happens if the United States and other Western powers make a fresh beginning with the Taliban?

Seeing COVID-19 as an Opportunity

May 3, 2020 / Essays

Extremist groups will attempt to take advantage of the turmoil created by COVID-19—and it’s not the first time.

A Whole Government Effort

Summer 2019 / Q & A

In reaffirming the U.S. role in the Middle East, anti-terrorism expert Gerald Feierstein explains that it is not enough to just fight violent networks; leaders must also address the root causes of extremism

Terror Will Be a Blight on the Obama Legacy

December 11, 2016 / Tahrir Forum

This is a bitter legacy for the past three American administrations and for all their international partners in inhuman, uncaring policies that have wrecked the lives and futures of hundreds of millions of people.

Syria Becomes Ever More Complicated

July 24, 2016 / Tahrir Forum

Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran effectively have to be seen as a single geo-strategic arena in which hundreds of local and national actors engage one another—and many have links to other regional players and global powers.

Condemn Terror and Get Beyond the Moral Vacuum

June 11, 2016 / Tahrir Forum

There are tens of thousands of more terrorists operating in the world today than there were in September 2001 when the global war on terror was launched. Something is not working here.

Will We See Two Islamic Emirates in Syria Soon?

May 21, 2016 / Tahrir Forum

Al-Qaeda’s operational shift towards Syria underlines the dangers created by crumbling states in the Levant.

How Should We Respond to the Threat of ISIS?

November 26, 2015 / Tahrir Forum

We will get nowhere other than where we are today if we all refuse to analyze the deeper drivers of radicalism that feed tens of thousands of recruits to these killer organizations.

From the Archives: A Portrait of Caliph Ibrahim

Fall 2015 / Essays

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi rarely allows himself to be seen in public, hence his nicknames the “phantom” and the “invisible sheikh.” A veteran journalist pieces together the story of the most feared jihadist leader since Osama Bin Laden.