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Ukraine, Gaza, and the U.S. Army’s Counterinsurgency Legacy
It makes perfect sense for American military organizations to study both the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, and to draw insights from both. But as the U.S. Army studies these two wars for insights, let’s drop the “learned” from the phrase “lessons learned.” Lessons learned assumes that an insight—a “lesson”—from these current wars can also, at the same time, be “learned”—that is, incorporated into the training and strategies of another military. This is a highly problematic assumption.
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The Organized Crime Threat to Latin American Democracies
Latin America’s democracies and democrats don’t get enough credit for weathering inequality, violence, and economic stagnation. Miraculously, only two of the region’s former democracies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, have collapsed into full-fledged authoritarianism. In no other part of the world have so many democracies held up under such pressures for so long. Governments have learned to manage many threats, but they are failing to curb the growing power of organized crime.
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IDF’s Subterranean Challenge: Profiling Gaza Metro, Hamas’s Center of Gravity
The subterranean infrastructure developed by Hamas, popularly known as the Gaza Metro, consists of tunnels, command and control centers, living spaces, stores and contingency fighting positions. The infrastructure is the pivot of Hamas’s irregular warfare strategy and allows it to undertake both offensive and defensive operations and has been assessed as one of its centers of gravity. Israel has been aware of the infrastructure but has possibly been surprised by the scale and sophistication achieved by Hamas in tunnel construction. The IDF’s technologies and doctrinal concepts are being tested every day in the ongoing war and will have a number of lessons for other armies.
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Legal Questions Answered and Unanswered in Israel’s Air War in Gaza
The Israeli Air Force’s (IAF’s) bombing of Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, has been widely criticized for the extreme level of civilian deaths, the choices of weapons used, and the way in which those weapons have been employed. Marc Garlasco writes that the Israel Air Force (IAF) dropped a staggering number of bombs on Gaza, and, what’s more, many of these bombs were “dumb bombs” which cause wide-area damage. Garlasco writes that that question “is how the IAF is assessing proportionality, which is the amount of civilian harm acceptable for a military target. To date, that appears to be heavily skewed to a point where Israel will accept extreme levels of civilian harm for questionable military value.”
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Research on Extremism in the U.K. Hobbled by Skewed Research Environment
A new report, analyzing the research environment in the U.K. within which research on extremism takes place, found that there are problems in studying extremism and communicating the findings of studies of extremism. These problems have caused gaps in the knowledge base around extremism in the U.K. and a lack of research on specific extremist movements, especially Islamist extremism.
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Does AI Enable and Enhance Biorisks?
The diversity of the biorisk landscape highlights the need to clearly identify which scenarios and actors are of concern. It is important to consider AI-enhanced risk within the current biorisk landscape, in which both experts and non-experts can cause biological harm without the need for AI tools, thus highlighting the need for layered safeguards throughout the biorisk chain.
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Red Sea Houthi Attacks: Implications for Global Trade
After a rise in attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, the world’s largest shipping firms are staying away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Will we see another supply chain crisis?
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U.S.-Led Taskforce Deploys in Red Sea as Middle East Crisis Threatens to Escalate Beyond Gaza
The world economy is strongly dependent on the global maritime supply chain. About 80% of international trade by volume is transported by sea. It does not take much to disrupt the global maritime supply chain. Intentional disruptions of the maritime supply chain by pirates or terrorists pose a challenge that goes beyond simple logistics. Attacks on civilian shipping directly affect insurance premiums and deter operators from transiting through certain areas for financial and security reasons.
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DOJ Charges High-Ranking Hezbollah Member for 1994 Bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Samuel Salman El Reda Participated in terrorist operations for Hezbollah in South America, Asia and Lebanon, and helped plan and execute Hezbollah’s July 18, 1994, bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina building in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.
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Claims That U.S. Abandoned Arms in Afghanistan are “Farce”: U.S.
The United States has again denied leaving any weapons in Afghanistan during the American military’s withdrawal from the country in August 2021, dismissing such allegations as “farce.” An administration spokesperson said that over the course of 20 years in Afghanistan, the United States had equipped the Afghan national security forces. In the face of advances by the Taliban insurgency, many Afghan forces had decided not to fight and lay down their arms.
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100 Years Ago, the KKK Planted Bombs at a U.S. University – part of the Terror Group’s Crusade Against American Catholics
The KKK is most infamous for violently terrorizing African Americans. But in the 1920s its hatred also had other targets, especially outside the South. This version of the KKK, known as the Second Ku Klux Klan, harassed Catholics, Jews and immigrants – including students and staff at Catholic universities like Dayton, where I am a historian of American religion.
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Benbrika Case Shows Australia in Danger of Complacency About Violent Extremism
The fact that convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika is being released from jail should be of concern to all Australians. Alarmingly, it’s happening without the court system even being asked to consider a continuing detention order.
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Why Pakistan Is Deporting Afghan Migrants
Pakistan’s decision to deport undocumented migrants over perceived security risks is poised to affect almost two million Afghans.
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Denialism in the Wake of the Oct. 7 Massacre
In the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre, many expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians displayed anti-Israel sentiment and support for Hamas. Most Americans have been exposed to hateful online misinformation and disinformation about the current war. One form of misleading propaganda effort stands out in the current war: Denialism.
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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.
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More headlines
The long view
Militia Extremists, Kicked Off Facebook Again, Are Regaining Comfort in Public View
When journalists sounded alarm bells in early May 2024 that more than 100 extremist militia groups had been organizing and communicating on Facebook, it wasn’t the first time militias had garnered attention for their online activities. As a scholar of militias, I’ve seen extremists get kicked off Facebook before.
The Manufactured Crisis of Migrant Terrorists at the Border
Politicians and pundits have given rise to a flood of rhetoric about terrorists exploiting border chaos to harm Americans. But exaggerated threats of terrorists crossing the southern border lead to costly, disproportionate policy decisions.