The urgent need to respond to ISIS has redefined the use of “self-defense” to include attacking a nonstate threat in another country. But what are the implications of this? change?
News from Syria that the ancient town has been taken back from Islamic State is good news – but especially for Putin and Assad.
The world can only expect more attacks such that that took place in Brussels, as Islamic State continues to decline and lash out.
EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson
Death toll data from the war in Syria should be treated with great caution. It’s nearly impossible to provide precise numbers and assigning blame for the casualties is harder again.
A Syrian child sleeps on the street in Kos.
EPA/Yannis Kolesidis
In-depth research with refugees and migrants reveals that deterrent measures will not solve the crisis.
Without the perfect-storm conditions of post-invasion insurgency, this most potent expression of al-Qaedaism yet would never have risen to dominate both the Middle East and the world in the way that it does.
Reuters/Stringer
The final article of our series on the historical roots of Islamic State examines the role recent Western intervention in the Middle East played in the group’s inexorable rise.
The summit of Mt Zagaras north of Athens.
Jason König
On February 11 a Syrian ceasefire was signed in Munich. Few are optimistic it will hold. Why? Because, argues one Middle Eastern scholar, world leaders are ignoring key realities.
Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University