Identity, War and Peace
Two articles have recently caught my attention—one about the rise of Christian militias, financed by American evangelical Christians, who are fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The other about the first signs of hope in Iraq in a long, long time. They reflect different dimensions of the same conflict, and those differences give me pause. In Baghdad, the curfew imposed after the American occupation began has been lifted. People are … Read More
Upcoming Roundtable | ISIS and Social Media
Challenging the power of traditional news outlets, social media networks have given those involved in international conflicts access to rapid-fire distribution methods and a worldwide audience. But as extremist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also called ISIS or ISIL) use YouTube, Twitter, and other social media networks to distribute violent content that some call visual terrorism, a number of questions arise: Do social media companies have … Read More
Picks of the Week | Cybersecurity Education for Children and The Battle Against Extremists
Cybersecurity Education K Through Life Growing Up in a Connected World | Fraud Avengers Security Education K Through Life | Dark Reading Professionalizing Cybersecurity: A path to universal standards and status | Pell Center The bottom line with cybersecurity is that no country, industry, community, or individual will ever be fully secure against cyber risks. This is because we simply cannot eliminate all the vulnerabilities inherent to a realm as … Read More
Picks of the Week | ISIS as Cyber Threat and its Will to Fight
The Breaking of Will James Clapper: We underestimated the Islamic State’s ‘will to fight’| The Washington Post The Battle Against the Islamic State is not ours to Fight or Win | The Washington Post The Manual that Chillingly Foreshadows the Islamic State | The Washington Post War is not about the killing of people, the destruction of buildings, or the disablement of machinery. War is about the breaking of will. … Read More
ISIS, Social Media’s Effects on Political Discourse | Picks of the Week
ISIS ISIS in Perspective | The National Interest Obama’s ‘strategy’ misfire | Politico U.S. Mobilizes Allies to Widen Assault on ISIS | The New York Times More than a decade ago, the United States invaded Iraq, toppling one brutal regime. In his second inaugural address, President George W. Bush heralded a “freedom agenda” that he argued would bring peace and stability to the Middle East. A couple of years ago, as the Arab … Read More
Perception of Immigration, U.S. Policy and Islamic State | Picks of the Week
Immigration and the Economy Government, Economy, Immigration Are Top U.S. Problems | Gallup The data on white anxiety over Hispanic immigration: What drives American views on immigration is often not pretty | The Washington Post Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy | Economic Policy Institute A Gallup poll released last week says that Americans currently feel that immigration is one of the top problems facing the United States. The finding, … Read More
The WorldPost: “Islamic State’s Soothing System”
Pell Center Adjunct Fellow Robert Whitcomb discusses Islamic militant group ISIS in his article published on Monday on The WorldPost, a partnership between The Huffington Post and Berggruen Institute on Governance. The Islamic State being set up in parts of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) challenges the idea of the nation-state as we in the West know it. The mostly young men who are the ISIS shock troops want to help swiftly … Read More