The death from illness on May 31 of the Polisario Front’s long-time leader Mohamed Abdelaziz has brought the exiled Sahrawi independence movement of the Western Sahara to an ideological crossroads. The Polisario nation, known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), is effectively a state... MORE

LIBYA: CLOSING IN ON ISLAMIC STATE’S STRONGHOLD Libyan forces have had a run of luck against Islamic State (IS) fighters in recent weeks, with two separate militias capturing several towns and closing in on the extremists’ stronghold of Sirte. The Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), the... MORE

Getting Libya’s economy back on track is fundamental to the country’s future. With the Government of National Accord (GNA) finally working from inside Libya and Fajez Sarraj in place as the new prime minister, many foreign powers hope the situation is finally improving (al-Jazeera, May... MORE

Since the outbreak of Syrian Civil War in 2011, a plethora of violent Islamist groups have surfaced in various parts of the country, some fighting for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and many fighting against it. According to an estimate from the Soufan Group,... MORE

Afghanistan: Taliban Moves Quickly to Name New Leader Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed in a US drone strike early on May 21, a move that might have initiated the Taliban’s second leadership crisis in less than a year, but the group quickly appointed... MORE

Since the March 2015 release of Islamic State’s (IS) “Tunis for us and not for the apostates” video, there has been a significant increase in the level of jihadist violence in Tunisia. Much of this has been driven by IS, which coordinates its grimly characteristic... MORE

Islamic State (IS) has experienced fits and starts in its efforts to expand beyond Syria and Iraq. As IS has tried to gain a foothold in new countries, it has encountered violent opposition from both state and non-state actors. In Algeria, state security forces decapitated... MORE