In The News

How We Broke the World: NYT

Thomas L. Friedman June 2, 2020
Global insecurity has intensified with the gradual dismantling of protections. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve been steadily removing man-made and natural buffers, redundancies, regulations and norms that provide resilience and protection when big systems – be they ecological, geopolitical or financial – get stressed,” explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Obsession with short-term...

Terrorists Storm Hospital: Afghanistan Times

Faizi Mansour May 13, 2020
May 12 was a particularly brutal day in Afghanistan. “Terrorists stormed a maternity hospital in west of Kabul on Tuesday morning, killing at least 16 people including four women and children and injured 16 others, in a gun battle with security forces that lasted for hours,” reports Afghanistan Times. Also, “More than 24 others were killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral in eastern Nangarhar.”...

Militant Threats in Africa: Wall Street Journal

Michael M. Phillips March 28, 2020
Africa is confronting increasing militant threats from extremists, including Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and Boko Haram. However, the United States has reduced its military presence in Africa by cutting 17 percent of personnel over the past two years – actions aligned with an adjustment of its worldwide troop commitment and the Trump administration’s strategy of reducing dispersed actions against...

China Pushes NATO Together: CNN

James Griffiths December 6, 2019
NATO members gathered to celebrate the alliance’s 70th anniversary in London, but relations seemed rough. NATO, a legacy of the Cold War, originally focused on confronting the Soviet Union and communism. However, with the collapse of the common enemy, NATO member states increasingly disagree about the meaning of its existence. Under President Donald Trump, the United States has questioned the...

Informant on Baghdadi: Washington Post

Joby Warrick, Ellen Nakashima and Dan Lamothe October 31, 2019
An informant who “lost faith” in the Islamic State helped the United States identify and kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “The mole’s detailed knowledge of Baghdadi’s whereabouts as well as the room-by-room layout of his sanctuary proved to be critical in the Oct. 26 raid that ended with the death of the world’s most-wanted terrorist, the officials said,” reports the Washington Post. The...

The US Withdraws from Syria: New York Times

Peter Baker and Lara Jakes October 8, 2019
Civil war in Syria began soon after the Arab Spring in 2011. Islamic State terrorists took advantage of chaos, gaining territory and control, and the United States supported Kurdish fighters in containing ISIS. But Turkey resents the Kurds – a large and marginalized minority in that country as well as Syria, Iraq and Iran – and labels them terrorists. President Donald Trump announced withdrawal...

The CIA and Diversity: BBC

Matthew Syed September 18, 2019
Numerous commissions have reviewed the activity leading up to the 9/11 attacks, hunting for strategies that might have prevented the threat. Of course, detecting threats in advance is challenging, but there were clues – reports of Saudi men attending flight school with no interest in landing. The problem may have been a systemic lack of diversity, notes Matthew Syed. The CIA has no trouble hiring...