In The News

In Fighting the Islamic State, Obama Is a Tortoise and the GOP is Harebrained

David Ignatius December 18, 2015
Combative rhetoric in free elections challenges a united national foreign policy. More than 15 candidates in the US presidential race, to be decided in November 2016, compete by siding with President Barack Obama or criticizing his policies. After serving two terms, Obama cannot run for reelection. The current point of contention: how to address religious extremism. Obama takes a deliberative...

How Fear Won the GOP Debate

Michael Grunwald December 16, 2015
Republican US presidential candidates insist they are ready to attack Islamic State extremists with full force. Some suggest banning refugees, and others go suggest a broader ban on Muslims, extreme measures considering the world has more than a billion Muslims and the CIA estimates that the Islamic State extremists total no more than 50,000. Moderators of the fifth debate bear blame for avoiding...

Saudi Arabia Forms Muslim Anti-Terror Coalition

Ahmed Al Omran and Asa Fitch December 16, 2015
Saudi Arabia announced plans for a coalition to battle terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. “Absent from the list was predominantly Shiite Iran – the kingdom’s main rival for leadership in the Muslim world – as well as Israel and Shiite-led Iraq,” report Ahmed Al Omran and Asa Fitch for the Wall Street Journal. “Still, it remains unclear what the Sunni kingdom is asking the...

Islamic State Oil Is Going to Assad, Some to Turkey, US Official Says

Guy Faulconbridge and Jonathan Saul December 14, 2015
Among the many rebel groups determined to overthrow the Assad regime since Syria’s civil war began in 2011 is the Islamic State. The terrorist group quickly targeted oil fields in northern Syria and Iraq to fund its campaign. A US treasury official, speaking at a Chatham House forum in the United Kingdom, suggests that Islamic State extremists have made more than $500 million selling oil. The...

The Islamic State Wants the West to Over-React and Hasten Apocalypse

David C. Rapoport December 8, 2015
The Islamic State’s brutality has shifted targets – from expanding territorial control for a so-called caliphate in the Middle East to inspiring random attacks on soft targets in the West. The terrorist group emerged during Syria’s civil war, initially targeting Shia and other Muslims who resisted the primitive beliefs. By 2015, air attacks by the United States, Jordan and other nations combined...

San Bernardino Redefines Obama's Remaining Time in Office

Susan Page December 7, 2015
US President Barack Obama entered office charged with ending war in Iraq. His final year in office will center on defeating Islamic State extremists that have emerged amid power vacuums in the same region, in the wake of civil war leaving 200,000 dead in Syria and millions displaced. The new push on terrorism comes as the Islamic State uses social media to incite sympathizers in launching attacks...

A War of Priorities in Syria

Chris Miller December 3, 2015
The international coalition targeting the Islamic State’s tenuous hold of communities in Syria and Iraq has divided interests that could prolong the war in Syria. “The war is driven by multiple, interlocking layers of conflict,” explains Chris Miller, associate director of the Grand Strategy Program at Yale and a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The priorities vary and desire to...