“Europe’s Refugee Crisis, Explained”
There are two layers to the current refugee problem: first, the wars and economic crises that have forced millions from their homes in the Middle East and sub-Sahara Africa and, second, the increasingly anti-refugee, nativist politics in Western and other wealthy countries that are best suited to take them in.
By Amanda Taub, Vox. Taub is a former human rights lawyer who covers foreign policy and human rights at Vox.dot.com.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/5/9265501/refugee-crisis-europe-syria
“The Refugee Crisis: Insane Asylum”
Germany’s warm welcome to Syria’s refugees is earning the country good press, but it may also be sowing the seeds of long-term agony.
By Adam Garfinkle, the American Interest. Garfinkle is editor of the American Interest.
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/09/12/insane-asylum/
“Trump’s Bluster on Iran”
Donald Trump has a simple solution for American hostages held in Iran. Elect him president, and “I guarantee you that those four prisoners are back in our country before I ever take office.”
By Robin Wright, the New Yorker. Longtime foreign correspondent Wright, a contributing writer for the New Yorker, is the author of eight books on the Middle East.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trumps-bluster-on-iran
“Does Donald Trump Have a Foreign Policy?”
China and Indonesia, among other countries, are taking him seriously.
By Esther Goldberg, the American Spectator. Goldberg is a lawyer from Alexandria, Virginia, who frequently writes for the American Spectator.
http://spectator.org/articles/63991/does-donald-trump-have-foreign-policy
“The Surge Fallacy”
Having misunderstood the Iraq War, U.S. Republicans are taking a dangerously hawkish turn on foreign policy. “The surge was not intended merely to reduce violence. Reducing violence was a means to a larger goal: political reconciliation.”
By Peter Beinart, the Atlantic. Beinart is a contributing editor at the Atlantic and National Journal, an associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-surge-fallacy/399344/
“Realism Is an Attitude, Not a Doctrine”
A comprehensive look at the term “realism” in foreign policy, a vague norm that does not offer consistent strategic guidance. Realists agree that power is what drives international politics, but they disagree about exactly when and where it should be unleashed or husbanded.
By Richard K. Betts, the National Interest. Betts is director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/realism-attitude-not-doctrine-13659
“On ‘the American Century’ and the Future of Smart Power”
An interview with Joseph Nye, the coiner of the influential term “smart power” and author of a new book titled Is the American Century Over? This is part of a special issue of Public Diplomacy Magazine devoted to smart power.
By Philip Seib, Public Diplomacy Magazine. Seib is vice dean of the Annenberg School of Communications as well as a professor of journalism, public diplomacy, and international relations.
http://publicdiplomacymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Smart-Power-PD-Mag.pdf
“ISIL Is Winning”
The Islamic State is something the world has never seen before – a threat that erodes any meaningful distinctions among terrorism, insurgency, and limited conventional warfare. It is clear that current U.S. strategy against ISIL is a failure. A new strategy must start with the recognition that ISIL’s appeal will not diminish nor its allure end until this movement is militarily defeated and pushed out of Iraq.
By Bruce Hoffman, Politico Magazine. Hoffman is director of Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies and a senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center. His most recent books are The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden’s Death and Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/isil-is-winning-213136#superLatest
“Anonymous and the Islamic State”
Bafflement seems a reasonable response to a barbarian upsurge, but recent books help explain who supports ISIS in the Middle East and how it manages administrative structure in the territory it controls.
By Paul Berman, Tablet. Berman writes about politics and literature for various magazines. He is the author of A Tale of Two Utopias, Terror and Liberalism, Power and the Idealists, and The Flight of the Intellectuals.
http://www.tabletmag.com/ jewish-news-and-politics/193077/anonymous-islamic-state?utm_source= tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=e199a88c41-Sunday_August_30_20158_28_2015 &utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-e199a88c41-207334713
“Islamic State: The Propaganda War”
The terrorists’ vicious message is surprisingly hard to rebut because it focuses on dreams of Sunni brotherhood and revived Muslim glory that inspire. Where previous jihadist narratives were all about resistance to imagined enemies, ISIS propounds “the propaganda of the winner.” The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21660989-terrorists-vicious-message-surprisingly-hard-rebut-propaganda-war
“The Believer”
How an introvert with a passion for religion and soccer – a former U.S. “civilian detainee” in Iraq – became Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State.
By William McCants, the Brookings Essay. McCants is a fellow in the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and has served in government and think tank positions related to Islam, the Middle East and terrorism, including as State Department senior adviser for countering violent extremism. He is the author of Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2015/ thebeliever?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium= email&utm_content= 21738527&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–v3EJ-JuqcXI5mK5xGGTDL9n4neMZIS79pQsZWpC9_ jwWCkF1L4r331DnurZXsgHPfbaF7E6LpE_ RtXKArjcnEczTcwg&_hsmi=21738527
“Fans of the Islamic State Respond to New Biography of Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”
A sampling of the negative responses on Twitter to the profile of the ISIS leader above.
Brookings Blogs.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/09/04-isis-leader-baghdadi-mccants?hs_u=grclack@gmail.com&utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source= hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=21838734&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9V4-fbJQf4oRZl1PfAKEU9sxYchek1kzPchFljAkPrf1MzJfjiruQEvsPweEG5ZChZBmdtTAVo9P4cmPEGz-1l2_IZvQ&_hsmi=21838734