Category: Blogs

Are We Giving ISIS Too Much Credit?

Ramzy Mardini, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, recently wrote in The Washington Post about the possibility of the Obama administration’s overestimation of the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It’s an interesting question.

We Can’t Destroy ISIS Without Destroying Bashar al Assad First

By Frederic C. Hof

On Wednesday evening, President Obama took 14 minutes to articulate, in clear and persuasive language, a counter-terrorism strategy “to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

5 Ways for NATO, US to support Ukraine

By Jan Lodal, Washington Post

The Ukrainian military is capable of defending this line if it is given adequate NATO support, led by the United States. Five packages are needed:

Egypt’s Role in Libya: Lessons Learned from Iraq

By Nader Bakkar

Taking an in-depth look at what role Egypt can play in the current crisis in Libya reveals that a full military intervention, a limited military incursion, or a ‘surgical operation,’ are wrought with negative repercussions. But what of a collective Arab or international military intervention?  What of an indirect intervention to provide intelligence or logistical assistance […]

Top News: Anti-ISIS Meeting Kicks Off in Paris

By MENASource

French President Francois Hollande called on Monday for a global response to counter ISIS, as leaders of twenty-six countries gathered in Paris to discuss how to fight against the militant group.Tehran ridiculed the international conference on the jihadist threat that opened in Paris on Monday, insisting the Islamic State cannot be defeated without the support […]

The Trap of Friendly Fire

By Khaled Dawoud

The recent release of two Muslim Brotherhood figures from prison in Egypt, the first since the army’s removal of former President, Mohamed Morsi, fourteen months ago, increased speculation that secret reconciliation talks were taking place between the two sides. While any negotiations were firmly denied in official statements by the government and the Muslim Brotherhood, […]