All Policy Analysis by Ido Levy

The United Arab Emirates has much to offer if it chooses deeper military involvement in the fight against al-Shabab, but it would need to coordinate closely with other actors, especially the United States, to optimize its contribution.

Special forces have succeeded especially in such missions, but any BWT effort requires some U.S. ground presence to achieve its goals.

As happened with past incursions, Erdogan’s latest invasion threats and preparatory strikes are fatally distracting the SDF from its crucial counterterrorism mission—and at a time when jihadist activities against it are on the rise.

The Biden administration should be encouraged by the incoming president’s ties to the UAE and apparent openness to bolstering the counterterrorism fight and normalizing with Israel.

The country’s terrorist challenge grew in the absence of American forces, requiring the Biden administration to reestablish strong connections with local personnel on the ground.

From Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia and Ukraine, closely mentoring special operators has been far more impactful than building up conventional forces, but this approach requires hands-on American involvement.

On March 27, two Israeli Arab men recorded themselves pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group before committing a terrorist attack in the Israeli city of Hadera, killing two and injuring several others.

Two scholars of jihadism assess the group's evolving approaches to conventional and insurgent warfare, and U.S. options for combating them.

The military response to a major prison attack exhibited the strength of the U.S.-SDF partnership, but it also highlighted ongoing counterterrorism shortcomings.

The group and its offshoots pursue conventional warfare campaigns as a rule, not an exception, so the United States needs to enhance its regional military partnerships accordingly.

The IS military project led not only to the announcement of a “caliphate,” but to the proliferation of jihadist franchises that devastated countries, displaced millions, and killed tens of thousands.

The military’s shift to tribal engagement has helped reduce jihadist attacks, but Cairo’s lagging efforts on development and human rights could leave the peninsula open to a future resurgence.

Amid growing calls for pluralism in Iraq, the U.S. should take steps to promote preservation of Iraqi-Jewish heritage, before it is too late.

A quantitative examination of how the apocalyptic mindset of certain jihadist groups makes them more prone to conducting mass-casualty suicide attacks.

U.S. military deployments create the strong alliances and local partnerships that the president said he wants.

The SDF has made remarkable progress in its anti-IS operations while Assad’s forces have stagnated, but the coalition and its local partners must still prepare for a renewed terrorist threat on their exposed southern flank.

After playing a key role in the group’s military development for years and navigating deep ideological rifts, Tehran has renewed its extensive sponsorship in ways that contributed directly to the recent bloodshed in Gaza.

Since losing its territorial base, the group has shown troubling signs of recovery amid a deteriorating situation at al-Hawl refugee camp.

The relatively low risk underscores the importance of Washington’s continued pressure to curtail the jihadist group’s strike capability outside its areas of operation.