It is widely believed that cooperation in fighting international terrorism and the development of global energy resources are the two main pillars of U.S.-Russian relations post September 11. The firmness of this foundation, however, has been eroded by the continuing disagreements between Moscow and Washington... MORE

In November 2003, the FBI announced that it was launching an investigation into reputed links between the anti-Russian Chechen resistance and Al Qaeda as a result of the death of a US citizen who was killed in October 2002 during the storming of the Nord... MORE

The Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO) is arguably the most controversial and perplexing topic in terrorism today. It is one of the greatest ironies of the recent Iraq war that an organization created in 1965, in part to combat "American Imperialism" and which after the November 1979... MORE

The deterioration of the war in Chechnya has very serious consequences for security and stability in the entire Caucasus region. The Western media often accept the Russian version of events, in particular when it comes to branding the entire spectrum of Chechen resistance to Russian... MORE

Shortly before his death in March 2005, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov made some interesting remarks about the spreading political violence in the Russian republics of the Northwest Caucasus. Maskhadov described the necessity of "broadening the front of military resistance" after the Russian invasion of Chechnya... MORE

Over the past three years, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)--a group on the U.S. Department of State's list of international terrorist organizations--has kept a very low profile. Twice, in the summers of 1999 and 2000, IMU militants attempted to overthrow the secular regime in... MORE

The specter of the "Arab fighter" in Chechnya has increasingly become an inseparable part of the Russian-Chechen conflict, particularly since 9/11, as Kremlin propagandists used the presence of a few notable Arab mercenaries in the breakaway republic to brand the entire Chechen independence movement as... MORE

To what extent can we ascribe realistic veracity to the general Western fear that Tanzania could be emerging as a new hub for transnational Islamic extremism in East Africa? Undoubtedly there are reasons for concern. The country clearly offers a conducive theater in which to... MORE

For several years Kremlin spokespersons have identified Turkey as the primary source of foreign jihadi volunteers (always referred to as naemniky, "mercenaries" in official proclamations) fighting alongside their Chechen adversaries. One spokesman claimed "We keep killing armed Turkish citizens on Chechen territory" and another described... MORE

The al-Qaida terror attacks in Saudi Arabia have thus far spared the country's oil infrastructure, being concentrated in the capital, Riyadh. A bombing in that city on May 12 killed thirty-five people; a second bombing followed on November 8; it killed eighteen people and wounded... MORE