Blog Posts

"There’s another group of foreigners who deserve our help much more – the 50,000 men and women who served as interpreters for American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Planning the shape of the postwar Middle East may seem like a fantasy right now, as the extremists are widening their fight. But..."

"I would recommend a few more special forces, advisors and targeters on the ground with a radical increase in air support -- maybe 10 or 20 times the scale, said Kilcullen.”

“The president has a more realistic and tragic understanding of the dysfunctions afflicting Islam than his critics acknowledge.”

“There are two sins in evaluating development projects. The first is asking the wrong question. The second is drawing the wrong conclusion.”

Five tasks recommended as urgent and essential to the current policy of permanently defeating ISO.

Prepared remarks of John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Watson Institute for International Studies, Providence, RI, November 18, 2015.

"Disenchantment with stability operations has led to a serious underestimation of what American forces achieved, as well as wishful thinking about avoiding such conflicts."

A reminder (listing) of our stated lines of effort concerning the U.S. strategy to counter IS/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.

“Force won't succeed until we defeat the ideology that gives rise to Islamist terrorism.”

Continue on for the White House Fact Sheet (press release) concerning building maritime capacity in Southeast Asia.

“The more the West strikes, the more people are killed [in Syria], it only builds into the narrative that the end is coming.”

In relation to Syria and ISIS, contemporary France can learn much from their 1954 defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

"What won’t work, he said, is sending thousands more U.S. troops into the fight."

"The group behind the horrifying attacks in Paris has been spreading death and destruction in large parts of Iraq and Syria since 2013."

“A massive and perhaps coordinated U.S., French, European, and Russian military response against ISIS in Syria is both necessary and inevitable.”

What is Article 5 of NATO’s Founding Treaty? - Excerpts from "NATO and the Scourge of Terrorism"  - 9/11 Aftermath.

“A worst-case ‘pre-mortem’ analysis of the Marine Corps’ latest operating concept is the way ‘to avoid failure when failure is not an option.’”

Will fear of a few evil men (or women) lead us to sacrifice our basic moral commitment to fellow human beings fleeing war, oppression, and deprivation?

“The Islamic extremism that drives ISIS is only one of the world’s sources of terrorism and insurgency by non-state actors.”

“There’s a time for soft power and playing the long game. But the attacks in Paris prove the Islamic State is overdue for eradication.”

"In the last two weeks, the so-called soldiers of the caliphate appear to have demonstrated a chilling reach."

Continue on for links to BBC and Reuters for live updates on the attacks and hostage situation in Paris.

"The Pakistani armed forces claim to have entered the decisive phase in their counterinsurgency operations against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan."

Continue on for links to eight SSI items of interest.