From First Things A vast oblong of Islamist, authoritarian, or sectarian persecution stretches from Egypt, Eritrea, Turkey, and Sudan, all the way to China and North Korea, across India and Pakistan. According to a recent report published by Aid to the Church in Need, “the persecution of Christians is today worse than at any time […]
Afghanistan
Coherent Afghanistan Strategy is Elusive
From In Homeland Security Three presidents have had to deal with Afghanistan and often made ambitious claims that the U.S. was making progress toward victory. However, none of the three chief executives defined that victory, articulated a clear path for ending the conflict or even described what peace would look like. Afghan Governance The Trump […]
Competing for Regional Power and Peace in Afghanistan
As the Unites States tries to break the long stalemate of war in Afghanistan, regional powers continue jockeying for position, attempting to carve out their own spheres of influence in the country. A combination of fears over the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch—Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)—and prospects of mineral wealth have pulled more of Afghanistan’s […]
Is Afghan Opium War a Path to Taliban Peace Talks?
Doubling down on a longtime policy of countering the opium trade in Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan forces began conducting airstrikes against opium production facilities and insurgent funding sources in November. After years of back-to-back record-breaking poppy yields, the move represented a policy shift targeting terror groups and their revenue streams. Opium has long been the […]
How to Stop Radicalization of Children on a Global Scale
Children are increasingly terror victims on the world stage—not only as targets but also as perpetrators—according to panelists at the Heritage Foundation forum “Islamist Ideology and the Radicalization of Children: What Can be Done?” on June 14. “‘[R]adicalization of children,’ these are three words that should never go together,” said Emilie Kao, director of the […]