Ideas

Syrian Women Helped Find Baghdadi, Beat ISIS, Will Face ‘Tough Time’ Ahead, Leader Says

'We will continue our resistance and our struggle,' says the head of the all-women’s YPJ, in a rare interview.

Ideas

ISIS Lost Its Land. Then It Began to Lose Its Ability to Inspire.

As with Osama bin Laden, the most intriguing fact about Baghdadi’s assassination was its location, deep in what was considered enemy territory.

Threats

ISIS Leader Baghdadi Killed Himself During US Special Ops Raid, Trump Confirms

Trump claims, against the evidence, that killing Baghdadi was administration's "top national security priority."

Threats

Trump Declares Victory in Syria, Claims Credit for It All

“Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,” the president says, as Congress fumes.

Ideas

'By, With, Through' Was the Best Hope for Syria — And Ending 'Endless Wars'

The U.S. acquiescence to Turkey’s invasion abandons an effective Kurdish partner, but also a creative model that was working.

Threats

Syrian Decision Rekindles Fear of ISIS Prison Breaks

Pentagon and State Department officials have raised alarms for months about the makeshift prisons.

Threats

DHS Is Finally Going After White Supremacists. That Won't Be Simple.

A new strategy prioritizes domestic terrorism, especially of the extreme right. Now the agency has to actually tackle the problem.

Ideas

DHS’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Reflects Professionalism, Not Politics

The counterterrorism experts who oversaw the Obama-Trump policy transition applaud the new strategy’s bold approach to domestic terrorism and guns.

Policy

Do Americans Really Want to End 'Forever Wars?' Survey says...

Some surprises, and unsurprising party lines, are revealed in the latest Chicago Council poll on American foreign policy opinions.

Threats

US Army: No Afghanistan Withdrawal Plans Yet

“We have not received any direction to do anything at this point,” says Acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.

Ideas

Our Efforts to Prevent Nuclear Terror Are Shrinking. The Threat Is Not.

Five ideas to help Congress reinvigorate the crucial pursuit of nuclear security.

Ideas

The Fight Against White Nationalism Is Different

The fight against ISIS offers some lessons—but also a cautionary tale on U.S. failures to combat an ideology.

Ideas

The Strategy of Violent White Supremacy Is Evolving

The failed approach of “leaderless resistance” gets a second chance in the information age.

Ideas

A Reformed White Nationalist Says the Worst Is Yet to Come

Christian Picciolini discusses the mainstreaming of white nationalism, what it takes to de-radicalize far-right extremists, and why the problem is metastasizing.

Ideas

The American Exception

The United States is not the only nation to suffer from white supremacism, but in America, it has proved uniquely deadly.

Threats

How Many Attacks Will It Take Until the White-Supremacist Threat Is Taken Seriously?

FBI Director Christopher Wray said recently that the bureau doesn’t “investigate the ideology, no matter how repugnant. We investigate violence.”

Threats

Why Won't Europe Take Back ISIS Fighters from Syria for Trial?

Italy took one. Hundreds more languish while governments slowly decide what to do next.

Ideas

Ep. 47: Mosul, revisited (part two) with Mike Giglio and Dan Gabriel

We continue our remembrance of the Iraqi and coalition forces pushing the Islamic State group out of Mosul two years ago this week.

Policy

Top Diplomat Slams ‘Endless War’ Cries of Campaign Trail as ‘the Echo of the 1930s’

“I get terribly worried. Because this shows total ignorance of what’s going on in the world today,” Ambassador Jim Jeffrey says.

Ideas

Ep. 46: Mosul, revisited (part one) with Omar Mohammed of Mosul Eye

This episode we travel to Paris to meet the Iraqi historian behind secretive dispatches during the Islamic State group's occupation of Mosul.