The March 2005 killing of Aslan Maskhadov was hailed by Russian officials as a sign of progress toward the restoration of Moscow's rule in the war-torn North Caucasian republic. But the wider trends in Chechnya and the North Caucasus betray a much bleaker picture. In... MORE

Modern Islamic militancy emerged in Indonesia during the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Darul Islam (Abode of Islam), a radical Islamist group whose vision was to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia, revolted in West Java in the 1950s. The rebellion was crushed, and... MORE

While China's allegations of links between the Uighur insurgency and the al-Qaeda linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are mostly based on fragmentary data, there is evidence that beginning in the 1990s and continuing today, a potent cocktail of drugs, weapons and Islamic extremism is... MORE

More than a year after the al-Qaeda linked bombings in Madrid, a general appraisal of counter-terrorism developments in Europe generally yields a worrying picture. Many analysts argue that the European Union has made little progress in coordinating and enforcing measures involving intelligence swapping and police... MORE

The tumult caused by the spate of bombings in Saudi Arabia may reflect accurately the turmoil happening in the war of hearts and minds - including those of the terrorists themselves. Although Saudi Arabia has long been under the spotlight for its role in the... MORE

Since the bomb-attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004, dozens of militant Islamic activists have been detained across Europe. At the same time, several active cells dealing in everything from propaganda to smuggling Islamic activists to Iraq have been broken up by various European police... MORE

Since the overthrow of the Taliban, most media reports on Afghanistan have warned of rising lawlessness throughout the countryside. Outside the capital Kabul, which is patrolled by international peacekeeping troops, we are told that "anarchy" prevails. The reports attribute this state of affairs to America's... MORE

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the Taliban's fall. While the need for improvement in Afghanistan remains, the country's population appears better off now than at any time since warfare first broke out over two decades ago. The Afghan people themselves support this conclusion... MORE

The true impact of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan is considerably at odds with the Bush Administration's expansive rhetoric. The United States seeks to wage the war on terrorism, establish a democratic Afghanistan and reconstruct the country. However, in Afghanistan, due to the lack of security... MORE

Sheberghan, Northern Afghanistan. August 2003. On the windswept plains outside this gas-producing town on the steppes of northern Afghanistan is a graveyard containing the bodies of 114 commanders killed in the early days of the war on terror. Above each grave is a picture of... MORE