Ideas

How Should the World Respond to Terrorism?

We invert the classic Q&A to explore the complexities influencing global responses to terrorism today.

Threats

How Bad Would A Radiological Terror Attack Be?

An interactive map shows a wide variation of outcomes for “nuclear terrorism.”

Ideas

Obama's Record as Commander-in-Chief, By the Numbers

He vowed to end America's wars, but has mostly just changed who’s doing the fighting.

Ideas

Let’s Not Give Suicide Bombers So Much Credit—Sometimes They Have No Strategy

The Brussels attackers may have been responding to territorial losses in Iraq and Syria, but that's not the only possible scenario.

Science & Tech

The Dark Web Is Too Slow and Annoying for Terrorists

For starters, a site on the dark web doesn’t do what jihadis need it to do: get their message out.

Ideas

The Changing Logic Behind Suicide Bombings

What was once purely a strategic action has become a tactical move meant to help hold territory.

Ideas

ISIS Is Using the Media Against Itself

It doesn’t matter if the coverage that follows an attack is negative. For ISIS, any coverage is good coverage.

Threats

What Trump Got Right About Brussels

Trump’s diagnosis of the attack makes sense. But the proposals he and Ted Cruz offered in response do not.

Threats

Flaws in Belgium’s Counterterrorism Efforts Were Long Known

Short staffing, communications problems, and institutional problems have plagued the country for years—and ISIS is taking advantage.

Science & Tech

How Facial Recognition Might Stop the Next Brussels

Keeping terrorists away from crowded spaces requires recognizing them before they get there, which is no easy task.

Threats

After Brussels, Will Voters Demand Foreign-Policy Experience?

Trump wants waterboarding, Cruz wants to ‘secure’ Muslim neighborhoods in wake of attacks.

Threats

What We Know About the Brussels Attacks

Dozens were killed in bombings at an airport and subway station, prompting outrage and disbelief across an already-shocked Europe.

Threats

How Syria’s Uprising Spawned a Jihad

Five years ago, the opposition to Bashar al-Assad was mostly peaceful and secular. What happened?

Science & Tech

The Pentagon Wants to Buy That Bomb You’re Building in the Garage

DARPA will pay tinkerers to weaponize off-the-shelf items — in hopes of defending against such hacks.

Ideas

The US Government Is Secretly Huddling With Tech Firms to Fight Extremism

A coalition of civil rights groups wants to be included in the closed-door meetings to keep the feds in check.

Threats

Why Colombia's War Against the FARC Isn't Over Yet

After decades of violence, peace may be on the horizon for 2016.

Threats

Kenya Wants Its Own Guantanamo

Critics say the plan will only alienate citizens with ties to Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabab is based.

Policy

Obama Confronts the Politics of Religion and Terrorism

The president preached inclusion and hit back at anti-Muslim rhetoric during his first appearance at a mosque.

Ideas

Want an Alternative to ISIS? Look to Tunisia

The Islamic State offers a false choice between dictatorship and extremism. Tunisia proves there’s a better way.

Threats

Al-Qaeda Is Still Exploiting Weak Governments in West Africa with Deadly Results

The group has targeted Algeria, Niger, Mali and now Burkina Faso—killing people and carrying out kidnappings for ransom, all to stop what they perceive as the corrupt influence of the West.