June 2, 2012

Syrian Conflict: The Spillover Effect in Lebanon

There are clear indications that the Syrian internal conflict is now spilling over into neighboring Lebanon.  The clashes there between Sunni pro- and anti-Syrian groups followed the shooting death of two anti-Syrian clerics recently.  The ...

March 19, 2012

China's Rare-Earth Power-Play

The United States, Europe, and Japan have recently joined forces to challenge China's restrictions on exports of rare-earth metals, escalating a trade row over access to some of the most important raw materials  used in advanced technologies. ...

November 26, 2011

Boko Haram: New Security Threat for US in Nigeria

The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, issued a warning Nov. 5 indicating that it had received intelligence that the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram may have been planning to bomb several targets in the Nigerian capital during the Muslim holiday of E...

July 10, 2011

Radicalizing Home-Grown Muslims

The Islamic terror threat is trending toward radicalization of the young and new converts in the Diaspora, getting them to join in armed struggle.  What motivates young men and women, born or living in the West, to carry out acts of terrorism ag...

June 19, 2011

Understanding the Taliban Insurgency: The Cause, Motivation, and Culture of Resistance

History of Afghan tribes Whenever the word "Taliban" appears, the image that we normally get is an image of a ragtag warrior, fighting the holy war that going on against his enemy.  The Taliban territory includes the harsh, mountainous, landlock...

June 5, 2011

Making Sense of the Syrian Uprising

The Syrian uprising began as soon as Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign.  Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, came to power in 2000, with the transition from father to son marking Syria as the first Arab republican hereditary re...

April 27, 2011

Who is Fighting Libya's Civil War?

The Arab uprisings in the Middle East have swept the region like wildfire in recent time -- the fall of the Tunisian president had a domino effect throughout the Middle East and North Africa.  Both Tunisia and Egypt's regimes have been burned, a...