iraq

Two excellent articles on what ISIL wants (and what happens what that conflicts with al Qaeda)

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Not particularly recent pieces, because my thesis has taken up most of my free time over the past two months, but worth reading if you haven’t yet.

Graeme Wood in the Atlantic: “The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.”

Daniel Byman and Jennifer Williams in Lawfare: “As troubling as the Islamic State’s successes are for U.S. officials, there is one person for whom they are even more troubling: Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although the Al Qaeda leader might be expected to rejoice at the emergence of a strong jihadist group that delights in beheading Americans (among other horrors), in reality the Islamic State’s rise risks Al Qaeda’s demise. When Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rejected Al Qaeda’s authority and later declared a ca­liphate, he split the fractious jihadist move­ment.”

The Kurdish right to self-governance

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The Kurdish right to self-governance

Fantastic primer from Michael Eppel on the history of the Kurdish demand for self-determination:

Although the development of the Kurdish national movement in the modern era was slow and late, Kurdish distinctiveness and Kurdish identity appeared earlier than most of the nations that achieved independent states in the twentieth century; and though the Kurds suffer from internal differences and splits and are in a complicated process of nation-building, the Kurdish national consciousness and self-definition are much more advanced than many of the national groups that have obtained independent states.

The Kurds’ striving for an independent state is no less legitimate than that of the Zionist movement prior to 1948 for the establishment of the State of Israel or of present-day Palestinians for a state alongside Israel. The Kurds have as much right to an independent state as the other national groups that have established states since the end of WWI and especially since the end of the Cold War.

The establishment of an independent Kurdish state will have implications for the international situation in the Middle East and will influence the political characteristics of the states in the region. The possible disintegration of Syria and Iraq will create conditions for an independent Kurdish state. If Iraq and Syria survive, and if their regimes embrace federalism, the Kurds will likely continue to build their autonomous regions. However, the inflexible attitudes of Turkey and Iran toward the autonomist demands of the Kurds endanger the chances of a peaceful solution that will satisfy Kurdish nationalist demands. A political solution for Kurdish national aspirations—a fully independent Kurdish state or Kurdish regions that enjoy wide autonomy in the framework of existing states—is necessary for the stabilization, peace, and successful development of the Middle East.

A dark Christmas for the Christians of the Middle East

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A dark Christmas for the Christians of the Middle East

Sadly, the tragedy of the Christians of Iraq — who span a whole range of doctrines and ethnic groups — is being replicated in many other places. Sectarian tensions are deepening around the world, and Christians are often the victims. Syria’s mostly Orthodox Christians are caught in the middle of the civil war between the government of Bashar al-Assad and its Islamist opponents. Egypt’s Copts are still attending charred churches, burned in anti-Christian pogroms and battling persistent anti-Christian sentiment. And now churches are even being targeted for attack by Hindu nationalists in India.

The case against paying ransoms

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The case against paying ransoms

Peter Singer on the ethics of paying ransoms:
The refusal to pay ransoms to terrorists can seem callous, but in truth it is the only ethical policy. Governments that pay ransoms to groups like the Islamic State are saving the lives of some of their citizens, but putting the remainder of their citizens – and others – at greater risk.