Violence in Aleppo escalated sharply on Thursday, January 8, 2026, as Syrian government forces launched a major offensive targeting the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods—following the apparent collapse of last-minute efforts to de-escalate tensions with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The surge in fighting has led to rising civilian deaths, …

The Middle East region could transition in 2026 to peace and stability or, perhaps more likely, backslide into regional conflagration.Conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen, as well as political divisions in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, are unlikely to fully resolve in 2026 and will require consistent attention from …

It is clear that the counterterrorism focus of the past two decades has become deprioritized in favor of great power competition, reflected in the dwindling resources for kinetic and non-kinetic counterterrorism and prevention efforts and shifting of personnel and bandwidth to other national security priorities.In 2026, al-Qaeda (AQ) and Islamic …