Latest Articles about South Asia

Afghanistan: Forgetting the Lessons of History

Afghanistan is again being lost to the West. The insurgency may drag on for many months or several years, but the tide has turned. Like Alexander's Greeks, the British and the Soviets before the U.S.-led coalition, inferior Afghan insurgents have forced far superior Western military... MORE

Cheney Attack Reveals Taliban Suicide Bombing Patterns

By:

The information for this article came from a five-month study of suicide bombings from 2001 to 2007 in Afghanistan. No suicide bombing was listed in the study unless it was corroborated by numerous sources. Sources varied from coalition countries' press releases, open media, al-Qaeda/Taliban websites,... MORE

Al-Suri’s Doctrines for Decentralized Jihadi Training – Part 1

By:

The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and... MORE

Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan

By:

The Afghan media has published an increasing number of critical reports about Iran's secret contacts with insurgent groups in Afghanistan, specifically those groups fighting against the U.S. presence in the country. On September 5, for instance, the Pashto-language newspaper Weesa referred to unidentified local officials... MORE

Al-Suri’s Doctrines for Decentralized Jihadi Training – Part 2

By:

Training jihadi recruits in the post-9/11 world is increasingly about finding a safe place where training is possible rather than discussing curricula, facilities, selection of recruits, instructors and related tasks [1]. In his voluminous treatise The Call to Global Islamic Resistance, published on the internet... MORE

Three Explanations for al-Qaeda’s Lack of a CBRN Attack

By:

The evidence of al-Qaeda's interest in conducting a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons appears compelling. As early as 1998, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared the acquisition of CBRN weapons a "religious duty" for Muslims [1]. He followed up in... MORE

The Ideological Voices of the Jihadi Movement

By:

It is news to few observers that thousands, even millions, of young Muslims are influenced—to some extent—by jihadi literature circulating on various Islamist websites and discussion forums. The mujahideen's use of the internet for communication, indoctrination, recruitment and public relations has been well demonstrated. Through... MORE