The Latest - Radicalization
Review: Violent Non-State Actors in World Politics
Klejda Mulaj notes in her introduction to this volume, violent non-state actors (VNSAs) "have only recently received sustained interest amongst academic and policy circles." more...
Terrorism, Economics, and the London Olympics
Here is a provocative question: how much did hosting the 2004 Olympics contribute to Greece’s current economic meltdown? The Olympics were probably a more significant contributor than you would intuitively think. more...
Islamism in the Popular Imagination
The term “Islamist” has been bandied about frequently since revolutionary events gripped the Arab world last year. It is a term meant to signify those, including political parties. more...
Is Nigeria the Next Front in the War on Terror?
Violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria is drawing the country ever closer to a religious war. The instigator of this conflict is Boko Haram, an Islamist movement whose very name means "Western education is forbidden." more...
On American Military Intervention in Syrian
The massacre in Houla and other regime atrocities that have been unearthed do not change American strategic interests with respect to Syria. Horrible as they are, they don’t tell us anything new about the nature of this odious regime. more...
Borum’s “Radicalization into Violent Extremism I”
The Journal of Strategic Security recently produced a special issue focusing on radicalization, which should be of immense interest for those of us studying the subject. more...
Are More Underwear Bomb Plots in Progress?
Yesterday’s news that the CIA had recently thwarted a plot to destroy a plane bound for the U.S. using explosives concealed in the bomber’s underpants has been followed by the alarming news that more bombers may be out there. more...
Al Qaeda Spins Failed Plots as Successes Because They Ramp Up Security and Drain US Treasury
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, blamed for a thwarted plot to bring down an airplane using explosives concealed in the bomber’s underpants, has emerged as likely the most potent Al Qaeda-affiliated entity. more...
Assessing Interpretations of the New Bin Laden Documents
The documents recovered from Abbottabad that were released on Thursday represent the largest new trove of information about al Qaeda to be made public in years. more...
The Bin Laden Files
West Point's Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) has released 17 declassified documents captured during the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. more...
Al Qaeda Graphic Hinting at More New York Attacks Likely Bluster and Not a Real Threat
An image posted on jihadi forums Monday caught the NYPD’s interest as a possible threat. In it, the city’s famous skyline at sunset is overlaid with the text: “Al Qaeda: Coming Soon Again in New York.” more...
Jamshid Muhtorov, the Islamic Jihad Union, and Joshua Foust
As regular Gunpowder & Lead readers will know, one of my preferred genres of writing is known informally as the “evisceration.” My recent piece on Fawaz Gerges’s proclamation that al Qaeda has died is one example of this genre (the thrust of which is probably evident from its rather descriptive name). more...
Five Trends Likely to Shape the U.S.’s National Security This Decade
My last post for Gunpowder & Lead began with the entirely accurate observation that few forms of writing are consistently less satisfying than “five myths” pieces. more...
The Death of al Qaeda: Fawaz Gerges Edition
Few forms of writing are consistently less satisfying than “five myths” pieces. The genre, by its nature, tends toward shallow analysis and the propagation of conventional wisdom under the guise of puncturing conventional wisdom. more...
Al Qaeda Round-Up, 2012
As we enter a new year, I wanted to outline the contours of, and analyze, a few issues that are likely to feature prominently in the fight between the U.S. and al Qaeda in 2012. more...
America’s 4-Prong Strategy for Somalia
After years of strategic drift in Somalia, the U.S. appears to have developed a new strategy for this battle-torn country. This four-part approach, which is based on our research and confirmed by U.S. government sources more...
Terrorism and the Coming Decade
Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, US officials are speaking openly of Al Qaeda’s impending death. Defense secretary Leon Panetta declared in early July of this year that the US is “within reach” of “strategically defeating” the jihadist group more...
What Will Anwar al-Awlaki’s Death Really Mean for al-Qaeda?
The apparent death of Anwar al-Awlaki -- a U.S. citizen hiding in Yemen, where he had worked with the local al-Qaeda branch -- comes amid a rash of bad news for al-Qaeda and its affiliates. more...
Bin Laden’s Death: Conspiracy Theories Edition
Last night a student journalist sent me an inquiry about Osama bin Laden’s death — inquiring whether I “really believe Osama Bin Laden is dead.” Blake Hounshell quipped, probably correctly, that I “should have just written, ‘Yes.’” more...
A Report Card for Homeland Security
While the U.S. faces severely constrained resources, the threat posed by violent non-state actors is unlikely to disappear soon. America is shackled by an economy that's in shambles and over $14 trillion in national debt. more...
Experts
Director, Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization