Recent Posts

A Reassessment of American Policy Toward Taliban Afghanistan

Key Points More than a year and a half on from its seizure of power, it is clear the Taliban regime rejects the idea of a pluralist political order and seems determined to impose the same restrictive social policies as were implemented in 1996-2001.As actions intended to isolate and punish …

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The Islamic State in Dera’a: History and Present Situation

On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State’s spokesman Abu ‘Umar al-Muhajir made the somewhat surprising announcement that the group’s “caliph” and leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi had been killed, while adding that the group’s Shura council had agreed on a successor going by the name of Abu al-Hussayn al-Hussayni al-Qurashi.1 …

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