• U.S. Middle East Vision Emerges as Biden Focuses Beyond Gaza War

    An American vision for a post-Gaza War Middle East is emerging as the Biden administration is exerting an increasing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war Cabinet to scale back Israel’s 10-week-old campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza amid mounting civilian casualties.

  • What European Security Services Say About the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe

    The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe is a controversial topic, and much of the confusion stems from the opaque and secretive nature of the Brotherhood and, consequently, the difficulty of obtaining clear and unequivocal information.

  • Shadow Play: A Pro-China and Anti-U.S. Influence Operation Thrives on YouTube

    Experts have recently observed a coordinated inauthentic influence campaign originating on YouTube that’s promoting pro-China and anti-US narratives in an apparent effort to shift English-speaking audiences’ views of those countries’ roles in international politics, the global economy and strategic technology competition.

  • A U.S. Ambassador Working for Cuba? Charges Against Former Diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha Spotlight Havana’s Importance in the World of Spying

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Dec. 4, 2023, that Victor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, had been arrested and faced federal charges for secretly acting for decades as an agent of the Cuban government. It remains to be seen what damage Rocha may have done while working as a Cuban spy. His tenure in the U.S. government, however, would place him right up there with the most successful, and thus damaging, spies in modern history.

  • U.S. Elected Officials Targeted by Vandalism, Threats Following October 7 Attacks

    In the weeks following the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, political activists have targeted elected officials – and their offices – with harassment and vandalism. Many of these incidents featured anti-Israel rhetoric, allegations of support for genocide and demands for a ceasefire.

  • U.S. Election: How Populists Encourage Blind Mistrust – and How to Push Back

    At the heart of liberal democracy lies the principle ofnumerous institutions which operate independently to balance competing interests. For this principle to work, it’s important that the public trust that these diverse voices act in good faith. Populists, however, seek to chip away at this by accusing a wide variety of organizations as either being run by “elites,” or working as agents of elite interests. Details may vary from country to country, but the overall function remains the same: to discredit democratic institutions or the media. As the US gears up for the 2024 election, it’s crucial for people to understand how populists cultivate blind mistrust of independent institutions.

  • Responding to Authoritarian Information Ops in Latin America

    The Russian government is currently financing an on-going, well-funded disinformation campaign across Latin America. The Kremlin’s campaign plans to leverage developed media contacts in several Latin American countries in order to carry out an information manipulation campaign designed to surreptitiously exploit the openness of Latin America’s media and information environment.

  • Biden’s Trade Policy U-Turn Bodes Ill for Indo-Pacific Security

    America’s economic isolationism is increasingly entrenched, with President Joe Biden’s administration no longer supporting the trade policies advocated by US multinational corporations, retreating instead to a nativist protectionism. The Biden administration’s U-turn last month on digital trade policy was a shock both to the US business community and to the nations that had been negotiating digital trade agreements with the US on the basis of its long-established position of lowering the barriers to digital commerce.

  • Countering Domestic Violent Extremism in the Ranks: Barriers to Recruitment Screening

    There an uncomfortably high number of Jan. 6 cases involving connections to military, law enforcement, and veteran personnel. These cases echo trends that have existed throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Carrie Cordero and Katherine L. Kuzminski write that these most recent cases once again raise the question of whether the United States has a problem with domestic violent extremism (DVE) in the military, veteran, and law enforcement ranks.

  • Cryptocurrency Tech Firm Blocks Terrorists’ Access to Cash

    Could Israel eradicate Hamas and other terrorist networks without a single person killed and without any boots on the ground or planes in the sky? For one technology firm, fighting terror doesn’t involve killing people, only killing the transfer of funds.

  • The Cross-Platform Evasion Toolbox of Islamic State Supporters

    Extremists exploiting platforms for their own ends and learning along the way is a tale as old as the internet and one that has become even more pronounced in the era of ubiquitous access to social media. Moustafa Ayad writes that over the past three years, a set of exploitation and evasion tactics have become central for Islamic State supporters online, and they are only getting more elaborate.

  • Can Hamas Really Be Completely “Eliminated”?

    The short answer, military analysts say, is “no.” The long answer is more complex. Israel’s campaign may degrade the group’s capabilities but defeating its ideology is likely impossible without a political solution.

  • Israelis and Palestinians Warring Over a Homeland Is Far from Unique

    Seen from the perspective of territorial conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from unique. Ultimately, the tragedy of deep attachment to a homeland territory lies in the fact that while it can create a sense of belonging for one group, it too often comes at the expense of another.

  • Democracy “Erodes from the Top”: How Elites Nurture Illiberal Populism

    Liberal democracy is losing steam,with third of Europeans voting for populist, anti-establishment parties. Recent studies show that it is elites, not the “masses,” who destroy democracies, but: If demagogues get an opportunity to capture democratic institutions, they can often do so without resistance from the citizenry, aspeople are reluctant to punish politicians for anti-democratic behavior if doing so runs against their own party or policy preferences.

  • Yes, Trump Is Disqualified from Office

    And no, it’s not undemocratic to use the Fourteenth Amendment to keep him off the ballot: Disqualifying Trump from becoming president again under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is well justified on legal and moral grounds, and any pragmatic concerns are outweighed by the likely benefits. Barring Trump is far from a complete cure for the problems that ail our political system. Much else needs to be done to address potential threats to democracy, and improve its functioning. But disqualifying a former president whose words and deeds prove him to be a dangerous menace to liberal democracy would be a step in the right direction.