It is not a return of the Cold War – but, in a sense, it may be even more dangerous. For more than four decades, the U.S. and its allies wrestled with a formidable enemy, one armed to the teeth, from nuclear weapons and delivery systems to the best … [Read more...] about The Growing Russian Menace*
U.S. Foreign Policy
ISIS: Portrait of a Jihadi Terrorist Organization*
An ISIS operative holds a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile on the background of a black ISIS flag (Picture sent by ISIS via Twitter) Objectives 1. This study examines the nature of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), an Islamic … [Read more...] about ISIS: Portrait of a Jihadi Terrorist Organization*
Words, Words, Words…*
It used to be a joke among those of us student étrangers in Paris struggling with learning the French language and something about the French culture, a joke half seriously made, that it mattered less what you said in française as to how you said … [Read more...] about Words, Words, Words…*
ISIS’s Public Support for Egyptian Jihadis
Left: Call for aid to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis on the ISIS forum. Photo: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis operative who blew himself up in the security directorate building in the southern Sinai Peninsula on October 7, 2013. The inscription reads: “Together … [Read more...] about ISIS’s Public Support for Egyptian Jihadis
Israel’s Nuclear Weapons, 2014*
Abstract Although the Israeli government neither confirms nor denies that it possesses nuclear weapons, it is generally accepted by friend and foe alike that Israel is a nuclear-armed state—and has been so for nearly half a century. The basis for … [Read more...] about Israel’s Nuclear Weapons, 2014*
The Chinese Riddle*
A servile media has again misrepresented the important if unproductive Asian tour of President Barack Hussein Obama, most importantly the promised engagement with China which failed to materialize. The ballyhooed U.S.-China climate change agreement, … [Read more...] about The Chinese Riddle*
Weekly Briefing, November 10-15, 2014
Left: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shakes hands with attendants of the First Latin American Muslim Religious Leaders Summit in Istanbul, where he announced that Muslims discovered the Americas before Columbus. Turkey Reaches Out to Latin … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing, November 10-15, 2014
The Persian Thread*
It's time for Paul Hollander to write a sequel to his marvelously insightful and humorous (after a fashion) 1981 "Political Pilgrims." For those kiddies for whom all this, and the environment in which it was written, is ancient history, may I remind … [Read more...] about The Persian Thread*
Weekly Briefing, November 2-8, 2014
Transportation Terrorism – Part I - Rachel Ehrenfeld - The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood that the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing, November 2-8, 2014
Jihadist Incitement in America
Samuel Huntington predicted the growing cultural and religious conflicts that we are witnessing daily. His dubiousness regarding the ability of the West to understand those challenges and reluctance to meet them has been disturbingly accurate. A … [Read more...] about Jihadist Incitement in America