For the past four years, Burkina Faso’s eastern region has been the theater of violent extremist expansion. Rather than a mere spillover dynamic, violent extremist organizations (VEOs) have successfully implanted themselves in eastern communities, exploiting widespread grievances against the central state and local elites amid decades of state neglect and…

A question preoccupying many Lebanese is: how does their country break free of Iran’s domination and that of its local ally, Hezbollah? Is there a deal that can be reached where they would be willing to give up a measure of control? The instrument of Iranian authority has been similar…

Questions surrounding Hezbollah’s presence in South America resurfaced when a former Israeli official was the target of an assassination attempt in Colombia in November. In a government report addressed to the government, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad linked the effort to Hezbollah. It was part of a plot to assassinate “a…

Speaking in Abuja last fall, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken implored African governments to enact reforms in response to their citizens’ demands for better governance. The ongoing crises in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Burkina Faso together with recent allegations of Nigerian police brutality and a growing awareness of the connections…

Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi detonated a suicide vest last week, according to US officials, as American special operators closed in on his position. He will not be missed. Al-Qurashi was directly and indirectly responsible for atrocities that included murder, rape, and torture. US President Joe Biden described…

The social media accounts of the new so-called ‘National Resistance Front’ (NRF) in Afghanistan give the impression of a raging insurgency already taking place against the Taliban. The talk is of ‘intense clashes’, with the Taliban suffering ‘heavy casualties.’ There are exaggerated accounts of running battles and successful ambushes against…

The return of foreign fighters and their families to the European Union has mostly been considered a security threat by member States, which consequently adopt repressive measures aimed at providing an immediate, short-term response to this perceived threat. In addition to this strong-arm approach, reintegration strategies have also been used…

Spared by the spread of violent extremism in the Sahel until 2015, Burkina Faso has since continued to spiral further into violence and instability. In this context, the military coup conducted on 24 January 2022 emerged as the culmination of the population’s growing discontent with the state’s capacity to find…

West African women are frequently absent from discussions of community security, despite their substantial contributions to local defense. Women are often viewed primarily as beneficiaries of attempts to reduce local violence, such that their roles in community-based security are typically overlooked. Yet women’s participation in CBAGs holds important implications for…

Terrorism continues to pose a significant threat to international peace and security, causing devastating human and economic losses. Moreover, the interplay between terrorism and other security threats, such as conflict and organized crime, has further complicated violence dynamics and offered new avenues for terrorist groups to sustain themselves, gain a…

By now it is something of a truism to say that the terrorist threat is constantly changing and is always adapting to whatever changes it sees itself confronted with. But merely acknowledging the fluid nature of the terrorist threat is not enough. We should, of course, try to understand what…

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to the global population’s physical and mental wellbeing, with long-lasting consequences on society. The level of uncertainty and risk involved in this health emergency has contributed to a steep increase in the overall polarization of the social and political environment, as demonstrated by the…