“The romance of jihad is not that different from the romance that leftist communists had for the republican side during the Spanish Civil War” Professor Bernard Haykel of Princeton University’s Department of Near… Continue reading
In Iraqi Kurdistan’s September 2017 referendum on independence, 92% of the population in Kurdish-held areas voted in favour of secession. Yet dreams of independence were shattered quickly. In response to the referendum’s result,… Continue reading
“The leaders of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are telling their followers: ‘Don’t bother to come here anymore, we’ll find something for you to do in the homeland.’” On the day… Continue reading
“Only when Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria fall, can we begin to talk about the beginning of the end of the physical territorial state. We already have plenty of evidence, that… Continue reading
“There is the issue of compatibility of Islam and democracy”, but in the recent past, the people of the Middle East have “spoken loudly about rejecting strongmen and have pushed out dictators.” But… Continue reading
“Bin Laden was very proud that he had only spent 500.000 dollars on the 9/11 attacks. The US in response to those attacks has probably spent 3 trillion dollars. So as a return… Continue reading
“The mistake was not to complete the job. That was a terrible mistake. Libya did not need thousands of weapons … If Libya was without those weapons, the competition would have been political.”… Continue reading
“IS and all jihadis believe that there is going to be war until the day of reckoning. A Caliphate will be re-constituted before the end times. But there are 12 Caliphs before the… Continue reading
“IS is a symptom of a deep feeling amongst Sunni Arabs of being disenfranchised. […] It is the same sentiment that led to the emergence of Al-Qaeda.” Professor Bernard Haykel of Princeton University’s Department… Continue reading
“To say that IS is outside of the interpretive parameters of Islam is factually incorrect. […] There is no question that these people are drawing inspiration from Islamic texts. And they know these… Continue reading
Is Syria a ‘New War’? And should there be a humanitarian intervention? Mary Kaldor (Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics) shares her vision. Kaldor: Is Syria a New War? Plea… Continue reading
“Syria and Libya are just fundamentally different both operationally as well as politically,” Dr Heather Roff Perkins (Visiting Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver) answers in response to… Continue reading
“Our benchmark is international community failure. But I’d like to think that even though there are still mass atrocities in the world, we are certainly getting better at preventing them from happening. And when… Continue reading
