Rumors began swirling last fall that al-Qaida chieftain Ayman al-Zawahiri had died of natural causes. With no confirmation, counterterrorism analysts and long-time al-Qaida watchers weighed in with various assessments of what it would mean for the terrorist organization if it had indeed lost its leader. Just last week, al-Qaida’s official …

The nature of the relationship between al-Qaeda and Iran is one of the most contentious debates in the counterterrorism community, dividing analysts, policymakers and government officials. The stakes of establishing or disproving the relationship are considerable—meaningful state support is immensely useful to terrorist organizations, especially one being hunted by the …

In a sign that Ankara is seeking to make renewed inroads in Central Asia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited three of the five states in the region in early March—Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey has made concerted efforts to leverage historic, cultural, …