Though Afghanistan today faces many threats, the greatest is that from Islamist extremists inside the country as well as those sheltering in the neighboring provinces of Pakistan. The most recent period has seen adversaries of the Karzai government and the US regroup their main forces.... MORE

Military victories in Iraq and Afghanistan do little to alleviate continued U.S. defeats on the most important front in the War on Terror - the war of ideas. A recent report by the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, a... MORE

The arrest near Islamabad earlier this year of the alleged number three man in al Qaeda's hierarchy, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, is worthy of note for two reasons. First, the capture took place on Pakistani territory with the help of local bodies of investigation and anti-terror... MORE

If the war on terror is to be won, we must first understand the perspective of our opponent. One of the principal inspirations for the type of Islamist ideology pursued by Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian chief lieutenant, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, is the work... MORE

Beginning with this issue, the Terrorism Monitor on a regular basis will analyze the Arab media's portrayal of the ideological sources of terrorism. This will include the most recent broadcasts of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabi, and other Arab television networks and will focus on the issues of... MORE

Much is being said and written about today's Islam and its role in international relations. "Islamic extremism" is understood as political extremism that uses Islam as an ideological basis. "Fundamentalism," "Wahhabism," "political Islam," and "militant Islam" are often viewed as synonyms. Those who try to... MORE

In October of 1974, Panteleimon Ponomarenko , the former head of the Soviet Union's Central Staff for Guerrilla Movements during the Second World War, gave a lecture at a secret school in the settlement of Novoe Nagornoe in the Pushkin district, forty miles outside of... MORE

The presence of al Qaeda elements in Iran has made headlines since the collapse of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The issue of deporting or extraditing them to the United States or to their countries of citizenship has engaged several governments through diplomatic channels as well... MORE

As with all of its foreign policy issues, Iran is hedging its bets in Afghanistan. Driving Tehran's policy is its obsession with the United States and anxieties about how Washington's actions will impinge on Iran's national interests. This is all the more crucial for Iran... MORE

Russian defense industries are seeking to boost foreign sales primarily in Latin America and the Middle East, providing opportunities for Russian companies to compete with potentially expensive Western options. In Latin America the main fields of military cooperation are aviation, small arms, as well as... MORE