October 5, 2017

By Kierat Ranautta-Sambhi     With the Islamic State’s caliphate crumbling, many in the towns and villages on the brink of liberation fear their post-Islamic State future.  To understand why the group succeeded to such an extent and to establish a lasting end to the conflict, we must look back at how the Islamic State … Continue reading “Strife Feature | The Islamic State’s Social Contract: A ‘state’ founded on fear or freedom?”

April 1, 2016

By: Sabina Ciofu Unlike any other terrorist organisation, the so-called Islamic State has consistently and efficiently made use of social media tools for self-promotion and recruitment. With an estimated 200,000 tweets a day for at least the last couple of years, it is by far the most aggressive social media offensive we have ever seen … Continue reading “Turning technology from an asset into a liability: using big data to fight ISIS”

October 14, 2015

By: Jack Curran-Persell Hebatalla Taha is a Research Analyst for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London where she focuses on the Middle-East and North Africa. Jack Curran-Persell: Earlier this month, you wrote a very interesting article for IISS on the situation for IDPs in Iraq. With the UN estimating over 3 million Iraqis have … Continue reading “IDPs in Iraq and the progress of the Islamic State: An interview with Hebatalla Taha (IISS)”

September 28, 2015

By Christiaan Triebert: Christiaan Triebert recently returned from the frontline between the Kurdish Peshmerga and Islamic State militants in northern Iraq. This is his account of his time with the Peshmerga.  *** “Get the brothers ready for tonight’s position.” “Yes I will, inshallah.” “Inshallah.” A group of Peshmerga soldiers stand around a walkie-talkie. They listen to the Arabic … Continue reading “Photo essay from the frontline against IS: playing the waiting game with the Kurdish Peshmerga”

September 3, 2015

By: Umberto Profazio Photo: Flickr under creative commons license. Recent security developments in North Africa show how terrorism is gradually spreading in the region. On 20th August one police officer was killed in a terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia, and the very same day a car-bomb exploded near a courthouse and a national security building in … Continue reading “North Africa – between security and democracy”

May 20, 2015

By Victoria Fontan: Dr. Victoria Fontan writes this article from Duhok, Kurdistan. EDITORS NOTE: On May 20, following the publication of this article, the Iraqi government granted conditional entry to Baghdad for IDPs fleeing the violence in Ramadi. However, as of May 22, Sharqia News, Iraqi TV was reporting the bridge had only been opened for 1,000 IDP’s, leaving 5,000 remaining … Continue reading “What does the fall of Ramadi mean for Iraq?”

May 9, 2015

By Munira Mustaffa: Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is painting Malaysia as “a model of moderate Islam” to the rest of the world, but the emergence of a recent recruitment video and photos from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) threatens to shatter that harmonious image.[i] The video and photos feature … Continue reading “Can POTA counter the ISIL threat in Malaysia?”

January 12, 2015

By Arne Holverscheid: What happened to President Bashar al-Assad? When Syria descended into civil war in 2011, he was the perfect enemy for the Western public: supported by his ally Iran, he preferred watching his people die and his country be torn apart than give in to demands for freedom, democracy and civil rights. The … Continue reading “Financing Terror, Part I: Private Kuwaiti donors in Syria's Civil War”

September 26, 2014

By Zoha Waseem: * * * While Pakistan remained fixated on the political stalemate between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (PML-N), Imran Khan (PTI) and Tahir ul Qadri (PAT), that is now well into its second month, a foiled attack on a naval dockyard in its financial capital Karachi went unreported for two days by an … Continue reading “The arrival of IS in Pakistan and the politics of the caliphate”