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John Demers, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, announces charges against two British men who joined the Islamic State, at a press conference in Washington, Oct. 7, 2020 (Photo by Jim Watson via AP).
ColumnMiddle East & North Africa
The U.S. Still Has a Long Way to Go to Hold ISIS Accountable

The extradition to the United States this week of two of the Islamic State’s most notorious members on terrorism charges was a poignant reminder of the dark and lingering legacy of the so-called caliphate. As much as the case marks a major milestone in America’s 20-year-long “global war on terror,” it is also a sad testament to how much remains unresolved about the status of thousands of foreign fighters who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and are now in detention in various countries, along with the women and children they brought with them. In its […]

A woman walks past American, United Arab Emirates, Israeli and Bahraini flags on the Peace Bridge in Netanya, Israel, Sept. 14, 2020 (AP photo by Ariel Schalit).
Q & AMiddle East & North Africa
Robert Malley on the ‘Lack of Change Propelling Change’ in the Middle East

The Middle East is “a place that is both remarkably impervious to change…and at the same time always sort of on the verge of an explosion, where you always think that something quite catastrophic could happen,” says Robert Malley, president and CEO of International Crisis Group and a former special adviser on the region to former President Barack Obama. This volatility grows out of the tension between popular demands for greater responsiveness and accountability from governments, especially since the 2011 uprisings, and the “sclerotic nature…of the Middle East system,” Malley explains. “On the one hand, it’s the stagnation that leads […]