Middle East & North Africa

Sources and Solutions: Review of Van Dam’s Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria

Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria by Nikolaos van Dam does not give a blow-by-blow account of the war. Instead, it explains underpinning factors which shaped the course of the Syrian Civil War and offers potential solutions to the ongoing conflict.

Copts Ring Church Bells for Egyptian Muslims, in Christian Sympathy
Copts Ring Church Bells for Egyptian Muslims, in Christian Sympathy

In what is being called the largest terrorist attack in modern Egyptian history, over 300 people were killed at a village mosque. Coptic Christians, who have seen over 100 people killed under an ISIS vow, responded with condemnation and sympathy.

Empires of Feeling and Fantasy

The Palestinian national movement is an illusory empire. Constructed on poetry and prejudice and generations of fantasy, it too must come crashing down so that it can be rebuilt, this time on a more solid basis.

Helping Religious Minorities Persecuted by Daesh
Helping Religious Minorities Persecuted by Daesh

In the first part of 2014, Daesh (also referred to as Islamic State or ISIS) began to establish the so-called…

Islamism: Contextualist or Essentialist? Or Both?
Islamism: Contextualist or Essentialist? Or Both?

In an excellent review of Shadi Hamid and Will McCants’ Rethinking Political Islam, Olivier Roy says there are generally two ways to think about Islamism: contextualist or essentialist.

What You Should Know About Hezbollah
What You Should Know About Hezbollah

Last week, Saudi Arabia accused Lebanon of declaring war against it because of aggression by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Here’s what you should know about the terrorist group that acts as a “state within a state” in Lebanon.

We Need a Just Wall Theory
We Need a Just Wall Theory

Since it seems reasonable to spend time at cafes, take public transportation, and go shopping without the constant threat of terrorist attacks, it also seems necessary to discern and articulate some principles of a “just wall theory.”

Zionism & Bolshevism

Last evening I attended a talk at the Israeli Embassy by the great Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who spent 9…

What You Should Know About Islamic State (ISIS)
What You Should Know About Islamic State (ISIS)

On Tuesday, a 29-year-old Uzbek national used a truck in a terrorist attack in lower Manhattan, killing at least eight people and injuring a dozen more. Writings found at the scene of the attack indicate the attacker had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).