Permanent Warfare as Normality
by Paul R. Pillar The newest issue of Foreign Affairs features the theme of “America’s Forgotten Wars,” with a cover illustration that juxtaposes a carefree scene of Americans enjoying a picnic with...
View ArticleGulf Dispute Heightens US Frustration with Saudis
by Giorgio Cafiero Nearly five months after the Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ)—Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—severed diplomatic and economic relations with Qatar,...
View ArticleIran Sanctions Policy Increasingly Throttles Free Trade in Ideas
by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj In 1988, as legislators were creating the legal basis for the modern use of economic sanctions as a tool of American foreign policy, an important amendment was added to two...
View ArticleThe Fall of the House of ISIS
by John Feffer The Middle East today is enduring a replay of World War II — with the Islamic State in the role of Nazi Germany. Having seized much of Europe and parts of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany...
View ArticleIraq and Iran, Sharing a Neighborhood
by Paul R. Pillar In Iraq, as in Syria, the imminent extinguishing of the mini-state of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS or IS) is raising the question of whether U.S. objectives in Iraq really are...
View ArticleOsama Bin Laden’s America
by Tom Engelhardt Honestly, if there’s an afterlife, then the soul of Osama bin Laden, whose body was consigned to the waves by the U.S. Navy back in 2011, must be swimming happily with the dolphins...
View ArticleThe New York Attack, Trump’s Outbursts, and Misconceptions About Terrorism
by Paul R. Pillar Donald Trump’s tweets in response to the terrorist attack along a bike path in Manhattan demonstrated some of what we already knew all too well about the president, but they also...
View ArticleThe Discontents of the Saudi “Moderate Islam” Project
by Eldar Mamedov Expanding on his vision of a new Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) announced a pledge a few days ago to promote “moderate Islam” and “eradicate all remnants of...
View ArticleIslamic State: From Physical Caliphate to Virtual Jihad
by Daniel Wagner and Giuseppe Del Vecchio Cyberspace is the ideal platform for terrorists because, unlike conventional warfare, barriers to entry into cyberspace are much lower. The price of entry is...
View ArticleKilling More Innocents Than We Admit
by Paul R. Pillar Anyone willing to think carefully and critically about the use of armed force against a target such as the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) would do well to read the intensively researched...
View ArticleThe Misuse of Terrorism Lists
by Paul R. Pillar President Trump’s placement of North Korea on the official U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism continues a manipulation, by several administrations, of this list for reasons...
View ArticleReexamining US Mideast Policy after the Jerusalem Proclamation
by Robert E. Hunter President Donald Trump’s official proclamation that the US accepts Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, along with preparations to move the American embassy there from Tel Aviv, has...
View ArticleThe Sources of Mission Creep in Syria
by Paul R. Pillar The other day we learned that there are four times more U.S. troops in Syria than any earlier official figure had acknowledged. The discrepancy did not get much public attention...
View ArticleIran–On the Brink?
by Graham Fuller With the emergence of demonstrations and rioting in various Iranian cities earlier this month, Washington’s neoconservatives and interventionist/ imperial-minded “liberals” have been...
View ArticleCounter-terrorism: Who will act on evidence in 2018?
by Jordan Street and Murray Ackman The evidence that mainstream counter-terror strategies need a rethink is crystal clear. Will 2018 be the year that decision-makers begin taking it seriously? The...
View ArticleA New Decision to Go to War in Syria
by Paul R. Pillar Behind a façade of continuity, the deployment of U.S. armed forces in Syria for the purposes that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described in a speech this week represents a...
View ArticleA Sustainable US Policy for North Syria, the Kurds, Turkey, and Damascus
by Joshua Landis and Matthew Barber This article is a “part-two” to the previous article “U.S. Policy Toward the Levant, Kurds, and Turkey,” which warned that the United State’s decision to back...
View ArticleSaudi Arabia and Iran Compete in the Sahel
by Javad Heiran-Nia and Somayeh Khomarbaghi Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate are supporting the Sahel Joint Military Force, the latest indication of a competition for influence with Iran in...
View ArticleThe Iraq War: Fifteen Years Later
by James J. Zogby Over the next few weeks, I want to take a look back to February and March of 2003, to those fateful days leading up to the Bush administration’s disastrous invasion and occupation of...
View ArticleNeeded in Syria: Disengagement
by Paul R. Pillar The cauldron of intervention known as the Syrian war has recently become even more likely to boil over than it was just a few weeks ago. There are two immediate dangers of escalation....
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