Robin Simcox, Research Fellow at The Henry Jackson Society, testified before the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence in Washington D.C. today regarding the threat posed to the West by returning jihadists. In light of the announcement of the new Islamic Caliphate, covering an area the size of Jordan across Iraq and […]
Operation Protective Edge began on 8 July 2014 in response to a barrage of rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel, threatening the lives of two-thirds of Israel’s civilian population, following the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers by militants in the West Bank. The operation has uncovered Hamas’ extensive terrorist and military structure […]
There are some problems which might not have a solution. Israel is at the stage in the conflict in which, traditionally, international pressure mounts to such a pitch that Israel has to stop its operations against Hamas. This is what happened in 2009, what happened in 2012 and what looks set to happen again now. […]
‘All Palestinians are targets’. Can anybody outside of the wildest fringes of the conspiracy theory movement imagine any Israeli leader saying such a thing? No. Yet the flipside is exactly what a Hamas spokesman declared this week. A couple of days into Israel’s surgical strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, a Hamas spokesman declared that […]
‘Avenge’, ‘cycle’, ‘retaliation’, ‘disproportionate’. Most media scripts of recent days could have been written by machines. Three Israeli teenagers have been murdered, callously and ruthlessly. Their abductions were barely covered by most of the non-Israeli press during the weeks in which they were missing. But now that they have been confirmed dead the Western press […]
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is an al-Qaeda offshoot which now controls a state the size of Jordan, spanning eastern Syria and northern Iraq. On 29 June, it declared this territory an Islamic caliphate, and the group’s emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph. ISIS immediately demanded that other groups swear loyalty to them […]
Israel’s Strategic and Political Context Israel is facing an adversary that has proven extremely capable, displayed a total disregard for human rights and the laws of war and is pursuing asymmetric warfare utilising the full spectrum of strategic pain points. The murder of the three teenagers by Hamas near Jerusalem is indeed a “reprehensible act […]
Why is ISIS different? Why is it different from all the other acronyms we have learnt to remember and fear over the last thirteen years? There is one reason in particular. Most of the last decade-and-a-half has been spent tackling terrorist groups. There have been many manifestations of them. But in Syria and Iraq, the […]
This week President Obama signaled a foreign policy shift in the best way he knows how: he gave a speech. Whatever else may be said about this President, he’s been no slacker in the speech-giving department. Nor was his foreign policy speech at West Point earlier this week short on stale rhetorical fare. Indeed at […]
Pictured: Abu Hamza al-Masri The conviction of Abu Hamza in a US court brings one of Britain’s most embarrassing security problems to an end. Likely to spend the rest of his life in a US prison, the fact that the British courts could not do the job the American courts have just done is a […]
Who would be a politician? It’s a serious question. At the best of times politicians face an unpleasant set of challenges. They work ungainly hours. They have to live under permanent public and media scrutiny. And they have to smile and nod while members of the public address stupid remarks to them. In Britain, even […]
Al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan in 2001. Photo courtesy of the the US Department of Defense. A new Henry Jackson Society report – Terror in the Sinai – provides the first statistical analysis of its kind on the evolution of the terrorist threat in the Sinai since the Egyptian revolution three years ago. Terror in […]
Some things have to be said by politicians, while some things, it seems, can only be said by ex-politicians. Tony Blair’s speech at Bloomberg in London, was a speech that needed to be given. And since it isn’t a speech that the US President or current UK Prime Minister seems willing or able to give, […]
When Edward Snowden’s leaks about alleged NSA and GCHQ were first released, the rogue contractor found a wide range of defenders. From sections of the left and right, the revelations were seized upon as a demonstration that security surveillance had become a dark force of oppression. ‘The national security apparatus is a cover for reading […]
A new Henry Jackson Society Report – The Arab Spring: An Assessment Three Years On – examines the ways in which the Arab Spring has affected the citizens of countries across the Middle East and North Africa, and assesses the impact on countries three years later. The Arab Spring: An Assessment Three Years On, launched today by The Henry Jackson […]