October, 2021

• 8 October

  The Venture Capitalists of Terrorism

  

  Even with its physical “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in tatters, the Islamic State is still managing to wage a global insurgency, maintaining an operational presence in at least 20 separate countries. The organization’s global diffusion recently led a group of leading terrorism experts to describe ISIS as an “adhocracy,” …

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• 8 October

  Assad Shores Up Control in Syria’s Symbolically Important South

  

  For much of the Syrian civil war, the southern city of Deraa and the surrounding Houran Plains, an agricultural region near the Jordanian border, were divided between government forces and armed rebels. Fighting raged back and forth, killing thousands. It was not until Russia backed a government offensive in 2018 …

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• 8 October

  Getting Boko Haram Fighters to Defect

  

  Around the world, states locked in conflict with jihadists are trying to devise policies to reintegrate disillusioned militants into society. In Nigeria, a program targeting defectors from the violent extremist group Boko Haram offers a window into the promise and pitfalls of such efforts. For the past 12 years, Nigeria …

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• 8 October

  Fixating on the ISIS Connection in Eastern Congo Will Make Things Worse

  

  In early May, in a televised address, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, declared martial law in North Kivu and Ituri, two provinces on the country’s eastern border with Uganda and Rwanda, and placed them under military rule. In justifying this draconian measure, Tshisekedi invoked the regular mass …

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• 8 October

  Why Sudan’s Democratic Transition Depends on Stability in Darfur

  

  The transitional government in Sudan announced last month that it will extradite former dictator Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Sudan’s Darfur region. The move was a sign that the new government …

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• 8 October

  Europe Has Spent Years Trying to Prevent ‘Chaos’ in the Sahel. It Failed

  

  “The terrorists are quick,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after a summit with the leaders of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou in May. “This is why we have to be quicker, so that we can beat them.” What happens in the Sahel, the vast sub-Saharan …

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• 8 October

  Mozambique’s Insurgency Requires a Multi-Pronged Response

  

  A violent insurgency in Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado is sparking fears that the area could become the next frontier for global jihadism in Africa. In recent years, young men, sometimes carrying the black flag of the Islamic State, have swept hundreds of thousands of people off their land …

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• 8 October

  Burkina Faso’s Gamble on Negotiating With Jihadists Could Backfire

  

  In early June, jihadist militants in Burkina Faso raided homes and the local market in Solhan, a village close to the border with Niger. By sunrise, they had killed at least 160 civilians in what local officials said was the country’s worst terrorist attack in years. Though particularly shocking for …

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• 8 October

  Sunday’s vote in Iraq clouded by a disillusioned electorate

  Blinking under the garish lights of a hotel ballroom in southern Iraq, Wael Makhsusi argued his case to a young audience. Microphone in hand, the engineer in his 30s stood onstage in Basra with other novice candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Among them were independents and hopefuls drawn from the …

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• 8 October

  Brazil: Economy Minister Could Use International Reserves To Pay BRICS Bank

  Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes argued that the government should use some $200 million from international reserves to pay the New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS bank. To do this, a new understanding must be reached at the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) on the cap on public spending, which …

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