The Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) is currently engaged in a violent jihadist insurgency against the Algerian government with the goal of replacing the secular regime with an Islamic state. The GSPC splintered from a rival Algerian organization, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA)... MORE

In early February, the emir of the Taliban in South Waziristan reached a peace deal with the central authorities in Islamabad. Baitullah Mehsud promised not to shelter or support foreign militants nor attack government installations and forces. If the agreement holds, it will help pacify... MORE

The recent constitutional Loya Jirga (CLJ) in Kabul, which ratified the new constitution for Afghanistan and set the stage for presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, was successfully carried out without interference from the armed opposition. The event, held under strict security, was not... MORE

Today's Pakistan has a serious quandary. It is no longer faced with the choice between a secular, pluralistic state and an Islamic state. Rather, the decision is between two Islamic state models, one that is modern and democratic and one that is backward, intolerant, increasingly... MORE

The war on terror has continued apace in Southeast Asia, and the governments in the region and their Western counterparts deserve credit for the arrests of some 250 Jemaah Islamiya (JI) members through December 2003. Several of the members of JI's regional shura, its leadership... MORE

In October of 2002 the worst international terrorist incident since the September 11 suicide strikes in Washington and New York took place on the island of Bali. It involved a series of coordinated explosions in a popular tourist nightspot district that collectively killed 202 people,... MORE

Beijing has several global security concerns regarding terrorism. Foremost among these are China's relations with the United States, and since September 2001, the U.S.-led War on Terrorism. Beijing is also worried about the Islamic/Arab World, especially in working to ensure China's supply of oil and... MORE

The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera broadcast an audiotape on December 19, 2003, that was said to be from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the right hand man of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In it, Zawahiri claimed that his group was chasing Americans everywhere, including... MORE

Ruled by an eccentric tyrant, Libya up until the middle of the 1990s was a prolific state sponsor of terrorism. While Qadhafi's gradual rehabilitation in the west may have alleviated fears of Libyan-sponsored terrorism, there is still much to understand about the threats posed by... MORE

Colonel Muammar Qadhafi's decades-long confrontation with the West has never given him much purchase among militant Islamists in Libya. In fact, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG – Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah fi-Libya) has waged a violent insurgency for ten years – with a hostility toward... MORE