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Iraq

Iraq’s National Defense College Visit to NDU

On 20–24 September 2021, the NESA Center hosted a delegation from Iraq’s National Defense College (INDC). The first day started with opening remarks from NESA Center Dean Dr. Roger Kangas and a seminar introduction from NESA Center Professor Daniel Curfiss, who also moderated the seminar series. Over the course of the five-day seminar, members of Read More >

Covid-19 and Security Issues at the NESA and Global Levels

Mourad Belhassen, NESA Alumnus and Director of Cultural Diplomacy and Strategic Planning, Tunisian MFA; former Ambassador of Tunisia to Indonesia Themes at the heart of the global security community debate: From the outset, it should be emphasized that the outbreak of the Coronavirus took many nations around the world by surprise, including those thought best Read More >

The Evolution of Islamic State’s Strategy

Despite having a vast number of forces arrayed against it – the United States-led coalition, Putin’s Moscow, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, Kurdish Peshmerga and the regimes in Baghdad and Damascus – Islamic State (IS) has expanded into other areas. Despite losing territory in Iraq and Syria, IS is growing in the Far East, the Read More >

Recruitment of Foreign Male and Female Fighters To Jihad

This article is divided into three major sections. Section one deals with the incursion of foreign fighters traveling to Syria and Iraq; section two explores the issue of the recruitment of young girls and women to Jihad. Section three discusses the preemptive strategy of North African countries, especially in Morocco to combat terror. The ‘Islamic Read More >

Pathological counterinsurgency: the failure of imposing legitimacy in El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Iraq

Many voices in the US policy community have suggested that El Salvador provided a model for US counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on the unsound contention that elections increased government legitimacy and effectiveness. The same flawed assessments were present in counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan – unfounded assumptions that elections would increase Read More >

An Opening For Al-Qaeda

Since the Islamic State (IS) made its dramatic military advance in Iraq more than a year ago—capturing Mosul and other key cities and declaring the caliphate’s re-establishment—analysts have been near-unanimous that the group’s emergence has devastated its parent organization, al-Qaeda. Indeed, IS has undermined al-Qaeda’s once-unrivaled position as the standard-bearer of the jihadist movement, outstripping al-Qaeda’s public Read More >