The most defining feature of international terrorism in 2023 will be its diversity, reflected by the broad array of ideologies and grievances motivating plots and attacks. The challenge of dealing with “everyday extremists” remains, as lone actors influenced by accelerationism and other forms of violent extremism radicalize online and seek …
Read More »SDF arrests several ISIS suspects during ongoing operation
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the arrest of several Islamic State (ISIS) suspects during a recently-launched operation against the group in northeast Syria (Rojava). The SDF on Thursday announced a new anti-ISIS mission dubbed Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, targeting the terror group’s hotspots in northeast Syria’s al-Hol …
Read More »Russia’s Rebound
How Moscow Has Partly Recovered From Its Military Setbacks “All the dumb Russians are dead.” So said Ukrainian officials in July 2022 as they sought to explain why the Russian army had abandoned the overambitious strategy and amateurish tactics that defined its conduct in the early weeks of the war. …
Read More »The New Industrial Age
America Should Once Again Become a Manufacturing Superpower For many citizens, the American dream has been downsized. In recent decades, the United States has ceased to be the world’s workshop and become increasingly reliant on importing goods from abroad. Since 1998, the widening U.S. trade deficit has cost the country …
Read More »Turkey’s overtures to Assad all about crushing Syrian Kurds’ autonomy
Turkey’s security establishment remains immutably opposed to the consolidation of any form of Kurdish autonomy in Syria that would mirror Kurdish gains in neighboring Iraq. Turkey’s overtures to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with last week’s meeting in Moscow between the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers, continue to …
Read More »Syrian opposition-controlled areas protest Ankara-Damascus rapprochement
Syrians are speaking out against a potential Turkish-Syrian rapprochement, with opposition-held areas holding vigils and protests across Aleppo and Idlib governorates. Protesters held a vigil in Idlib on Tuesday in protest of the Turkish rapprochement with the Syrian government. Protests have been taking place across different Syrian cities in Aleppo …
Read More »Iraq’s Sistani calls on world not to abandon Afghans
Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, asked the international community and the Muslim world to stand with the people of Afghanistan following a meeting with Afghan Shiites. A group of Shiite clerics from Afghanistan met with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, this week, as he urged the …
Read More »Iraqi prime minister sees tensions spike with political allies
Local militias have resumed threatening the US presence in Iraq this week, leaving Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani in a difficult position. Sudani was nominated by the Coordination Framework, a bloc that includes Iran-backed militant groups and allied political groups. The alliance provides essential political support to Sudani who relies …
Read More »Iran, Syria, Yemen: Twitter’s collaboration with the US military in information warfare
The Cradle has previously deconstructed the Pentagon’s online bot and troll operations targeting Iran. These wide-ranging efforts, over many years, sought to destabilize the Iranian government by disseminating and inciting negative sentiment against it, on a variety of social media platforms.
Read More »Abandoning Afghanistan is dangerous for its neighbors
Following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban-led schismatic government in Kabul appears to have reached a diplomatic impasse. It seems like its neighbors, who had previously been eager to restore normalcy to the turbulent region, have given up on the Islamic …
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