Written by: Garrett Halak With Syria and Iraq witnessing the end of ISIS, an insurgency conducted in the northern province of Mozambique has immobilized thousands and sparked the re-emergence of ISIS-affiliated violence. On March 24th, Palma became victim to a horrific ambush that has caused major concerns. At the height of this ambush, 17 vehicles…
Tag: Terrorism
Islamic Insurgency in Mozambique Requires Nuanced Response
Written by: Peter LaBelle A long-running conflict in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado escalated at the end of last month as Islamic insurgents belonging to the extremist group ‘Al-Shabaab’ invaded the town of Palma. The town is a strategically important one in the far north of the state and houses a project by French…
Counterterrorism Plus, or Intervention Under a Different Name: A Look at a Biden Administration’s Middle Eastern Policy
Written by: Cooper Stewart With the 2020 election results virtually finalized, all appears set for former vice president Joe Biden to be sworn into the oval office in January 2021. While many leaders from around the globe expressed “hope” and “relief” with his victory, the reaction from the Middle East was far more mixed regarding…
Jihadi Online: The Pandemic and Lone-Wolf Terror Attacks
Written by: Nils Peterson Since the declaration of their caliphate in 2014, ISIS has lost the majority of territory it once controlled. However, as far back as March of 2020, several jihadi groups capitalized on scaled-down African governmental military operations due to the pandemic by launching new waves of suicide attacks attacks. In a worrying…
The Forgotten Crisis of 2020
Written by: Cormac O’Harrow We are almost six months into 2020, and everybody can agree upon the fact that this is, to say the least, a tumultuous time to be alive. The country has already seen a global pandemic, an economic recession, impeachment trial, and an upcoming election. But there’s one area that seems everybody…
Public Health: What We Can Learn From the Defense Sector?
Written by: Aaditya Kumar The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought a global structural problem to the limelight: a lack of infrastructure to help the world deal with epidemics. If there was an unexpected terror attack or a sudden cause for warfare, many advanced countries throughout the world would be prepared as they already have a…
The Failures of the American Counterinsurgency Against the Taliban
Written by: Ariana King In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban under suspicion that it was hiding Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members after the 9/11 attacks. Eighteen years later, the United States is in the process of negotiating a peace agreement with the Taliban in which U.S. troops will…
Burkina Faso: The Linchpin of West Africa
Written by: Jadalyn Eagens Burkina Faso is a small, West African country about the size of Colorado with a population of about 19 million people. The country has largely managed to avoid the terrorist activity which has plagued neighboring countries Mali and Niger. In the past year or two, however, Islamic militants have been moving…
Three Key Takeaways From the Fight Against ISIS
Written by: Daniel Yun On March 23rd, 2019, U.S.-backed coalition forces finally captured the last remaining Syrian town, Baghuz, held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). A once mighty caliphate, the terrorist organization has wreaked havoc and terror in the Middle East for the last five years. In response, the United States…
A Taliban Resurgence: Investigating U.S. Counterinsurgency Mistakes
Written by: Ariana King As of January 19th, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has individually met with all parties involved in the seventeen-year-long war that began with the 2001 U.S. ouster of the Taliban government. The Taliban is an Islamist extremist group which has imposed harsh Sharia law on the Afghan people…
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