Threats

How Many ISIS Fighters Has the US Actually Killed?

The U.S. Defense Department cautions against using 'body counts' as a metric of success in its campaign against the Islamic State. But it continues to advertise them anyway.

Ideas

Turkey’s 10-Sided War With Itself

The unfortunate reality is a Turkish society now made up of mutually distrustful — and sometimes violent — camps.

Threats

Turkish President Issues Media Blackout After Bombings

Following a deadly attack at a peace rally, social media users also reported signs that their access was also being throttled.

Ideas

Today’s Terrorists Want To Inspire

How terrorism has—and hasn’t—changed, from the Algerian War to ISIS.

Ideas

The Islamic State's Recruiting Has Hit Britain Particularly Hard

British Muslims are caught in a pincer movement: with public and government suspicion on one side, and a seductive and supposedly empowering ideology on the other.

Ideas

The West Point Professor Who Contemplated a Coup

A controversial law professor resigns after calling his intellectual opponents treasonous, and perhaps exaggerating his credentials.

Ideas

The Allure of ISIS Has Reached Long-Stable Ghana

So far, recruits number a tiny handful of people in a nation of 26 million. But Ghanaians should hear alarm bells ringing.

Policy

Jeb Bush ‘Won’t Commit’ to Ban on Torture

Bush “not struggling with” undoing President Obama’s executive order that codified the ban on enhanced interrogation techniques.

Threats

How Violent ISIS Videos Help Mobilize New Recruits

Aug. 19 will mark one year since James Foley’s execution was posted on YouTube. Such videos offer, to certain minds, a paean to masculinity and a path out of powerlessness.

Ideas

The Lost Pilgrims of the Islamic State

Like past pilgrimages to China and the Soviet Union, the migration of Westerners to the Islamic State group points to the tragic intersection of estrangement and utopian hope.

Threats

Turkey Opens Key Air Bases for US Strikes On ISIS

The newly approved use of Incirlik Air Base and others for bombing missions will greatly reduce the distance U.S. warplanes must fly to their targets.

Threats

The Team That Chases Down Online Threats To The President

It’s easy to find angry words on Twitter and Facebook, but who should be punished and how much time should the U.S. spend doing so?

Threats

Martin O’Malley’s Link Between Climate Change and ISIS Isn’t Crazy At All

There’s an established body of work drawing a connection between drought, resource scarcity, and conflict in general. And the battlefields of Syria happen to feature all three.

Ideas

Obama Must Address Kenya’s Alarmingly Weak Counterterrorism Plan

Kenya is under immediate terrorism threat, yet its leaders block civil organizations, target Muslims and extort bribes.

Ideas

Tajikistan’s Security Chief Has Gone Over to ISIS. Now What?

Washington must convince the corrupt and repressive Tajik government to change its ways, lest extremists gain a Central Asian foothold.

Threats

What International Law Says When Boko Haram's Captive Nigerian Girls Commit Atrocities

The world must determine who's at fault after Nigeria's terrorist organization forced many kidnapped Chibok girls to do horrible things.

Threats

Can Tunisia Stop Terrorism With a Wall?

History suggests that building a wall on the Libyan border might not be all that effective.

Threats

The Other Reason the Iranians Are Edging Toward a Nuclear Deal

The spread of ISIS has changed the equation, making Tehran's hawks more amenable to a deal with the west.

Threats

ISIS Kills 50 Egyptian Soldiers in Sinai Peninsula

If the terrorist group does control this territory, it would be a new milestone for the group's foothold outside of Iraq and Syria.