GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2016 | Executive Summary 2 Deaths to 577 from 77 in 2014
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Policy Notes for the Trump Notes Administration the Washington Institute for Near East Policy ■ 2018 ■ Pn55
TRANSITION 2017 POLICYPOLICY NOTES FOR THE TRUMP NOTES ADMINISTRATION THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY ■ 2018 ■ PN55 TUNISIAN FOREIGN FIGHTERS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA AARON Y. ZELIN Tunisia should really open its embassy in Raqqa, not Damascus. That’s where its people are. —ABU KHALED, AN ISLAMIC STATE SPY1 THE PAST FEW YEARS have seen rising interest in foreign fighting as a general phenomenon and in fighters joining jihadist groups in particular. Tunisians figure disproportionately among the foreign jihadist cohort, yet their ubiquity is somewhat confounding. Why Tunisians? This study aims to bring clarity to this question by examining Tunisia’s foreign fighter networks mobilized to Syria and Iraq since 2011, when insurgencies shook those two countries amid the broader Arab Spring uprisings. ©2018 THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY ■ NO. 30 ■ JANUARY 2017 AARON Y. ZELIN Along with seeking to determine what motivated Evolution of Tunisian Participation these individuals, it endeavors to reconcile estimated in the Iraq Jihad numbers of Tunisians who actually traveled, who were killed in theater, and who returned home. The find- Although the involvement of Tunisians in foreign jihad ings are based on a wide range of sources in multiple campaigns predates the 2003 Iraq war, that conflict languages as well as data sets created by the author inspired a new generation of recruits whose effects since 2011. Another way of framing the discussion will lasted into the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution. center on Tunisians who participated in the jihad fol- These individuals fought in groups such as Abu Musab lowing the 2003 U.S. -
Boko Haram Beyond the Headlines: Analyses of Africa’S Enduring Insurgency
Boko Haram Beyond the Headlines: Analyses of Africa’s Enduring Insurgency Editor: Jacob Zenn Boko Haram Beyond the Headlines: Analyses of Africa’s Enduring Insurgency Jacob Zenn (Editor) Abdulbasit Kassim Elizabeth Pearson Atta Barkindo Idayat Hassan Zacharias Pieri Omar Mahmoud Combating Terrorism Center at West Point United States Military Academy www.ctc.usma.edu The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Combating Terrorism Center, United States Military Academy, Department of Defense, or U.S. Government. May 2018 Cover Photo: A group of Boko Haram fighters line up in this still taken from a propaganda video dated March 31, 2016. COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Director The editor thanks colleagues at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC), all of whom supported this endeavor by proposing the idea to carry out a LTC Bryan Price, Ph.D. report on Boko Haram and working with the editor and contributors to see the Deputy Director project to its rightful end. In this regard, I thank especially Brian Dodwell, Dan- iel Milton, Jason Warner, Kristina Hummel, and Larisa Baste, who all directly Brian Dodwell collaborated on the report. I also thank the two peer reviewers, Brandon Kend- hammer and Matthew Page, for their input and valuable feedback without which Research Director we could not have completed this project up to such a high standard. There were Dr. Daniel Milton numerous other leaders and experts at the CTC who assisted with this project behind-the-scenes, and I thank them, too. Distinguished Chair Most importantly, we would like to dedicate this volume to all those whose lives LTG (Ret) Dell Dailey have been afected by conflict and to those who have devoted their lives to seeking Class of 1987 Senior Fellow peace and justice. -
PERSPECTIVES on TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue 5
ISSN 2334-3745 Volume V, Issue 5 October 2017 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue 5 Table of Contents Welcome from the Editors......................................................................................................1 Articles Countering Violent Extremism in Prisons: A Review of Key Recent Research and Critical Research Gaps.........................................................................................................................2 by Andrew Silke and Tinka Veldhuis The New Crusaders: Contemporary Extreme Right Symbolism and Rhetoric..................12 by Ariel Koch Exploring the Continuum of Lethality: Militant Islamists’ Targeting Preferences in Europe....................................................................................................................................24 by Cato Hemmingby Research Notes On and Off the Radar: Tactical and Strategic Responses to Screening Known Potential Terrorist Attackers................................................................................................................41 by Thomas Quiggin Resources Terrorism Bookshelf.............................................................................................................50 Capsule Reviews by Joshua Sinai Bibliography: Terrorist Organizations: Cells, Networks, Affiliations, Splits......................67 Compiled and selected by Judith Tinnes Bibliography: Life Cycles of Terrorism..............................................................................107 Compiled and selected by Judith -
Mass-Fatality, Coordinated Attacks Worldwide, and Terrorism in France
BACKGROUND REPORT Mass-Fatality, Coordinated Attacks Worldwide, and Terrorism in France On November 13, 2015 assailants carried out a series of coordinated attacks at locations in Paris, France, including a theater where a concert was being held, several restaurants, and a sporting event. These attacks reportedly killed more than 120 people and wounded more than 350 others. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack.1 To provide contextual information on coordinated, mass-fatality attacks, as well as terrorism in France and the attack patterns of ISIL, START has compiled the following information from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).2 MASS-FATALITY TERRORIST ATTACKS Between 1970 and 2014, there have been 176 occasions on which terrorist Number of Times More than 100 People Were Killed attacks killed more than 100 people by Terrorist Attacks on a Single Day in a Single Country (excluding perpetrators), in a particular 30 country on a particular day. This includes both isolated attacks, multiple attacks, 25 and multi-part, coordinated attacks. The first such event took place in 1978, when 20 an arson attack targeting the Cinema Rex Theater in Abadan, Iran killed more than 15 400 people. Frequency Since the Cinema Rex attack, and until 10 2013, 4.2 such mass-fatality terrorist events happened per year, on average. In 5 2014, the number increased dramatically when 26 mass-fatality terrorist events 0 took place in eight different countries: Afghanistan (1), Central African Republic (1), Iraq (9), Nigeria (9), Pakistan (1), Source: Global Terrorism Database Year South Sudan (1), Syria (3), and Ukraine (1). -
How Sophisticated Are Terrorist Attacks on Passenger Rail Transportation
How Sophisticated are Terrorist Attacks on Passenger Rail Project SP 0520 Transportation June 2020 Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R. Butterworth Executive Summary Summary of Key Findings Terrorist attacks on passenger rail transportation are statistically rare events in the developed world— only about seven attacks per year are carried out against all of the economically advanced countries combined. However, uncovered plots and attempts indicate continuing terrorist interest in attacking transportation targets. The vast majority of terrorist attacks on passenger rail transportation are aimed at disrupting travel or causing casualties. Most of the attacks (87%) and 100% of the casualties result from attacks on passengers aboard trains and in stations, i.e., where the people are. We have defined sophistication by identifying four criteria, of which at least one must be met: The attack must (1) involve the recruitment of inside assistance, the use of insider knowledge, or the acquisition of specialized skills through training; (2) require the penetration of manned or closely monitored security systems; (3) involve the use of sophisticated weapons, devices, or means (for an IED to be considered sophisticated, it must do more than simply explode—it must have a timing or remote detonating system that guarantees detonation at a remote time or in a specific location, or it must be miniaturized or disguised so as to evade detection); and (4) must be complex—it must involve multiple actors with individual roles or coordinated simultaneous or near-simultaneous attacks at different locations. Using those criteria, we find few of the terrorist attacks on public surface transport are sophisticated. -
Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief
Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief Updated January 27, 2021 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R44245 SUMMARY R44245 Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief January 27, 2021 The following matters are of particular significance to U.S.-Israel relations. Jim Zanotti Domestic issues: March 2021 election. After the collapse of its power-sharing Specialist in Middle government in December 2020, Israel is scheduled to hold another election for its Eastern Affairs Knesset (parliament) on March 23, 2021. The election will be Israel’s fourth in the past two years—a frequency without parallel in the country’s history. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has managed to maintain power despite an ongoing criminal trial on corruption charges that is set to resume in February 2021. Netanyahu apparently hopes to create a coalition government that will grant him legal immunity or to remain indefinitely as caretaker prime minister (as he did from December 2018 to May 2020) by preventing anyone from forming a coalition without him and his Likud party. Palestinians and Arab state normalization. On the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump Administration policies largely sided with Israeli positions, thus alienating Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. In the second half of 2020, the Administration pivoted from its January 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal to helping Israel reach agreements—known as the Abraham Accords—on normalizing its relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. In connection with its deal with the UAE, Israel agreed in August 2020 to suspend plans to annex part of the West Bank, though announcements related to settlement activity have accelerated since then. -
The Pkk and Car Bomb Attacks
ANALYSIS DECEMBER 2016 NO: 24 THE PKK AND CAR BOMB ATTACKS NECDET ÖZÇELIK ANALYSIS DECEMBER 2016 NO:24 THE PKK AND CAR BOMB ATTACKS NECDET ÖZÇELIK COPYRIGHT © 2016 by SETA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without permission in writing from the publishers. Layout : Aslı Zeynep Alkan Printed in Turkey, İstanbul by Turkuvaz Haberleşme ve Yayıncılık A.Ş. SETA | FOUNDATION FOR POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH Nenehatun Caddesi No: 66 GOP Çankaya 06700 Ankara TÜRKİYE Phone:+90 312.551 21 00 | Fax :+90 312.551 21 90 www.setav.org | [email protected] | @setavakfi SETA | İstanbul Defterdar Mh. Savaklar Cd. Ayvansaray Kavşağı No: 41-43 Eyüp İstanbul TÜRKİYE Phone: +90 212 315 11 00 | Fax: +90 212 315 11 11 SETA | Washington D.C. 1025 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 1106 Washington, D.C., 20036 USA Phone: 202-223-9885 | Fax: 202-223-6099 www.setadc.org | [email protected] | @setadc SETA | Cairo 21 Fahmi Street Bab al Luq Abdeen Flat No 19 Cairo EGYPT Phone: 00202 279 56866 | 00202 279 56985 | @setakahire THE PKK AND CAR BOMB ATTACKS CONTENT ABSTRACT 7 INTRODUCTION 8 THE PKK’S USE OF VEHICLE BOMBS 9 VBIED ATTACKS BETWEEN AUGUST 2, 2015 AND AUGUST 25, 2016 10 ANALYSIS OF SELECTED TARGETS 10 ANALYSIS OF EXPLOSIVES USED IN ATTACKS 20 TYPES OF ATTACK, VEHICLES, EXPLOSIVES AND TARGET/DISTANCE RELATION 21 CONCLUSION 22 PKK’S CAR BOMBS ATTACKS AFTER AUGUST 25, 2016 22 setav.org 5 ANALYSIS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Necdet ÖZÇELİK Özçelik served in the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) between 1993 and 2014. -
Jihadism in Africa Local Causes, Regional Expansion, International Alliances
SWP Research Paper Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for International and Security Affairs Guido Steinberg and Annette Weber (Eds.) Jihadism in Africa Local Causes, Regional Expansion, International Alliances RP 5 June 2015 Berlin All rights reserved. © Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2015 SWP Research Papers are peer reviewed by senior researchers and the execu- tive board of the Institute. They express exclusively the personal views of the authors. SWP Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for International and Security Affairs Ludwigkirchplatz 34 10719 Berlin Germany Phone +49 30 880 07-0 Fax +49 30 880 07-100 www.swp-berlin.org [email protected] ISSN 1863-1053 Translation by Meredith Dale (Updated English version of SWP-Studie 7/2015) Table of Contents 5 Problems and Recommendations 7 Jihadism in Africa: An Introduction Guido Steinberg and Annette Weber 13 Al-Shabaab: Youth without God Annette Weber 31 Libya: A Jihadist Growth Market Wolfram Lacher 51 Going “Glocal”: Jihadism in Algeria and Tunisia Isabelle Werenfels 69 Spreading Local Roots: AQIM and Its Offshoots in the Sahara Wolfram Lacher and Guido Steinberg 85 Boko Haram: Threat to Nigeria and Its Northern Neighbours Moritz Hütte, Guido Steinberg and Annette Weber 99 Conclusions and Recommendations Guido Steinberg and Annette Weber 103 Appendix 103 Abbreviations 104 The Authors Problems and Recommendations Jihadism in Africa: Local Causes, Regional Expansion, International Alliances The transnational terrorism of the twenty-first century feeds on local and regional conflicts, without which most terrorist groups would never have appeared in the first place. That is the case in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Syria and Iraq, as well as in North and West Africa and the Horn of Africa. -
Global Reader Volume 2 | 2018
ROHATYN CENTER for GLOBAL AFFAIRS GLOBAL READER Student Academic Journal|Spring 2018|Volume 2 1 CONTENTS 01 Foreword from the Rohatyn Student Advisory Board 02 On the Edge of Hope: Internally Displaced Peoples and Urban Humanitarianism Esteban Arenas-Pino, Class of 2018 09 Understanding Sino-Indian Relations: Can China and India Rise Peacefully? Naing Phyo, Class of 2018 17 Women’s Rights In The Early Days Of Khomeini Talia Ruxin, Class of 2020 25 Language and Power: Diglossia and the Disempowerment of Guaraní Speakers in Paraguay Leah Metzger, Class of 2020 31 Colonized, Exploited, and Excluded: Western European Paths to Radicalization and Terrorism in Ethnonationalist and Jihadist Perspective Meredith Tulloch, Class of 2018 43 Electronic Waste: Transboundary Movement and Producer Responsibility Amelia Pollard, Class of 2020.5 52 Understanding the Local and International of Terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa Sarah Corsico, Class of 2018 ROHATYN CENTER for GLOBAL AFFAIRS: GLOBAL READER Student Academic Journal|Spring 2018|Volume 2 Student Editors Laura Dillon '19 Sabina Latifovic ‘18 Isabella Mauceri '20.5 Marykate Melanson '18 Vignesh Ramachandran '18 Julian Schlemmer '20 Maya Woser '18 Editor & Designer Karlo Škarica '17 Program and Outreach Fellow Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs Foreword After the success of last year’s inaugural edition, the Global Reader is back! This academic journal continues to provide a platform for exceptional student works in the field of global affairs. We are committed to the production and dissemination of knowledge about international and global issues, across languages, borders, and disciplines. Our students produce high-quality work on a daily basis, but the opportunity to share it remains scarce. -
Tunisia Fragil Democracy
German Council on Foreign Relations No. 2 January 2020 – first published in REPORT December 2018 Edited Volume Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy Decentralization, Institution-Building and the Development of Marginalized Regions – Policy Briefs from the Region and Europe Edited by Dina Fakoussa and Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid 2 No. 2 | January 2020 – first published in December 2018 Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy REPORT The following papers were written by participants of the workshop “Promotion of Think Tank Work on the Development of Marginalized Regions and Institution-Building in Tunisia,” organized by the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Middle East and North Africa Program in the summer and fall of 2018 in cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Tunis. The workshop is part of the program’s project on the promotion of think tank work in the Middle East and North Africa, which aims to strengthen the scientific and technical capacities of civil society actors in the region and the EU who are engaged in research and policy analysis and advice. It is realized with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa e.V.). The content of the papers does not reflect the opinion of the DGAP. Responsibility for the information and views expressed herein lies entirely with the authors. The editorial closing date was October 28, 2018. Authors: Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, Mohamed Lamine Bel Haj Amor, Arwa Ben Ahmed, Elhem Ben Aicha, Ahmed Ben Nejma, Laroussi Bettaieb, Zied Boussen, Giulia Cimini, Rim Dhaouadi, Jihene Ferchichi, Darius Görgen, Oumaima Jegham, Tahar Kechrid, Maha Kouas, Anne Martin, and Ragnar Weilandt Edited by Dina Fakoussa and Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid No. -
The Evolution of the Revolution
The Evolution of the Revolution THE CHANGING NATURE OF IRAN’S AXIS OF RESISTANCE KENNETH M. POLLACK MARCH 2020 AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE Executive Summary ince the earliest days after the 1979 Islamic Soleimani in January 2020 could significantly impede S Revolution, the Iranian regime has sought to build further progress. a coalition across the Middle East to help it achieve its As it stands currently, the Axis is comprised of ideological and geostrategic goals. Tehran understood both state and non-state actors. These groups include that its ability to secure the Islamic Republic in Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liber- overturn the regional status quo, drive out the United ation of Palestine–General Command (PFLP-GC), States, and make Iran the regional hegemon was lim- Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and occasionally the ited if it acted on its own. It could only succeed with Kurdistan Workers’ Party. State and quasi-state actors the help of others. openly aligned with Tehran include Hamas in Gaza, However, for the next two decades, the Axis was Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria, and the Houthis little more than rhetoric, ascribing greater unity in Yemen. of effort to an amalgam of states,semi-states , and Ultimately, the new operating method of Iran’s non-state actors than was ever the reality. It was pri- Axis of Resistance is a strategy born of necessity. It marily a psychological ploy to frighten its adversaries is a strategy of the weak, unlikely to succeed against and make its members feel less isolated in the face the strong except when they are badly constrained of American hostility. -
ISIS Tunisia
ISIS Tunisia The ISIS insurgency in Tunisia refers to the ongoing militant and terror activity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant branch in Tunisia. The activity of ISIL in Tunisia began in summer 2015, with the Sousse attacks, though an earlier terror incident in Bardo Museum in March 2015 was claimed the Islamic State, while the Tunisian government blamed Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade. Following massive border clashes near Ben Guerdance in March 2016, the activity of the ISIS group was described as armed insurgency, switching from previous tactics of sporadic suicide attacks to attempts to gain territorial control. 18 March 2015 - Bardo National Museum attack, Three militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. Two of the gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, and threatened to commit further attacks. However, the Tunisian government blamed a local splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, for the attack. A police raid killed nine members on 28 March. Campaign of violence: 2015: 26 June - 2015 Sousse attacks, An Islamist mass shooting attack occurred at the tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, about 10 kilometres north of the city of Sousse, Tunisia.