In these days, as Iraqi forces backed up by the US-led coalition are trying to break the last stand of ISIS resistance in the battle for Mosul, the world will witness the laying of a milestone in the war against the cancerous terrorist state, which broke out across the lands of Iraq and Syria, to rapidly metastasize its cells worldwide.
However, as much as it would be tempting to abandon oneself to the enthusiasm following the achievement of such a major breakthrough, a more collected look at the...
... complex and it is now a crucial security issue for EU and Russian governance.
The employment of paramilitary volunteer battalions by Poroshenko’s government to fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern regions is attracting a large number of jihadists in Europe. Such jihadi fighters mainly comes from the Caucasus and from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Being the state of Ukrainian military poor, the government needs to employ new forces. But are really jihadists the solution?...
“Islamic State” as a security problem for Russia
Amid the vast ocean of Islamist radicalism, the particular focus given to Islamic State (IS) is merited by its role as the main center of gravity in the transformation of transnational violent jihadism today. Before exploring how this phenomenon is linked to and affects Russia in and beyond the North Caucasus and in the broader Eurasian context, and before examining the character, scale and the contextual limits of such links, it makes sense ...
al-Qaeda vs ISIS
In late April 2015, the media reported that the leaders of Islamic State (IS) and Taliban declared
jihad
against each other. Earlier, there had been violent clashes between supporters of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who refused to swear allegiance to the future caliph. Given the exacerbated divisions ...
The fight against jihadist networks
One week after the terrorist attacks in Paris, the police killed two jihadists in Belgium. Officials said that the two men were coming back from Syria and were on the brink of targeting Brussels. The capital of Belgium was already ...
The Three-State Solution for Iraq
Proceeding in order, to fully appreciate the information that constitutes the core of the anlysis and to understand the events that shaped the Islamic State, it is crucial to briefly outline the situation in Iraq in 2003, focusing on George W. Bush's project for the future of the country after Saddam Hussein.
“The only viable strategy, then, may be to correct the historical defect and move in stages toward a three-state solution: Kurds in the north...
ISIL or al-Qaeda 2.0?
On June 10, 2014, Iraq was shattered by yet another political earthquake, raising the possibility of another Afghanistan located right in the heart of the Middle East. Within just a very small number of days, the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), known in Iraq and Syria for appalling atrocities and militant fanaticism, was able to occupy the two-million person city of Mosul, the second largest in Iraq, and vowed to march victoriously on Baghdad...
