Policy decisions are being made based on the assumption that the Middle East is riven by a purely dualistic sectarian war between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. While sectarianism is relevant, geopolitical competition, local disputes, and political rivalries are the core drivers of conflict in countries like Iraq and Syria. Read more »
// Hassan Hassan
It's 2011—not 2001—that defines the challenge facing the United States and its allies in combatting jihadism.
The Long Aftermath of 9/11: How Terrorism Doesn’t End by Martha Crenshaw
With Us and Against Us: Understanding the Mixed Record of U.S. Partners on Counter-Terrorism Cooperation Since 9/11 by Stephen Tankel
What Progress Has America Made after 17 Years of Global Counter-Terrorism Efforts? by Michael P. Dempsey
Retrospect and Prospect: On Endless War by David A. Brown, Tim Hoyt, and Craig Whiteside
Another Year of the War in Afghanistan by A. Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner
By David A. Brown, Tim Hoyt & Craig Whiteside, War on the Rocks: “Following the 9/11 attacks, successive U.S. administrations have promulgated three consistent objectives: First, to prevent additional mass casualty attacks on our homeland. Second, to find and punish those responsible. And third, to shatter the larger transnational terrorist movement’s capability and capacity to be a future threat.”
The postwar order seems poised to continue eroding, without a clear alternative in the offing. It has often taken cataclysmic events to inaugurate new eras of geopolitical order, but one hopes that the postwar order will instead be reinvigorated through farsighted statecraft. Read more »