Category: developing
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Managing Foreign Jihadist Fighters in Post-Assad Syria: Evaluating U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Options
April 23, 2026. Abstract: This study analyzes the growing problem of foreign fighters in Syria and assesses the challenges they pose to U.S. counterterrorism objectives, regional stability, and the prevention of an ISIS resurgence. It evaluates how the integration of jihadist factions into Syrian state institutions contributes to sectarian violence, institutional fragmentation, and opportunities for…
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Jihadists Threaten Stability in post-Assad Syria
March 23, 2026. In early March 2025, clashes broke out between Assad loyalists and Syrian security forces in the coastal region of Latakia. However, after initially beginning as an attack on state forces, the clashes triggered a much larger sectarian conflict, leading to the massacre of approximately 1,000 Alawites, most of them civilians.[1] The attack…
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ISIS Threatens Syria’s President, Calls for Attacks on the West.
February 23, 2026. Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa has come under recent fire by ISIS’s media and propaganda wing. The group called Sharaa a “puppet without a soul” controlled by the West, stating that he will have a similar fate as Bashar al-Assad. The audio message, delivered by ISIS spokesman Abu Huzaifa al-Ansari, is the first…
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Clashes in Syria Threaten ISIS Prisons and U.S Strategy
January 25, 2026. Recent clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian government have disrupted operations and security at prisons holding ISIS fighters in northeastern Syria. As the Damascus government continued its offensive to annex parts of northeastern Syria, the SDF withdrew, abandoning control over prison facilities such as the al-Hol camp. In…
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Fragile Integration: The SDF, State Consolidation, and U.S. Counter-ISIS Strategy in Post-Assad Syria
January 19, 2026. Aleppo Escalation and the Failure of Integration The January 6 clashes in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods marked the most serious confrontation between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led SDF since the fall of the Assad regime. After several days of fighting, the SDF withdrew its forces from Aleppo on January…
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Past, Present, and Future of Ethnic-Fueled Political Turmoil in Bosnia
March 30, 2025. Bosnia and Herzegovina, a culturally rich and diverse country, has long struggled with the complexities brought by its multi-ethnic makeup and opposing political factions. Unearthed by the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions in Bosnia and the entirety of former Yugoslavia erupted, creating various armed conflicts. Today, tensions…