Countering Terrorism

In this week's Monday Briefing, MEI experts Marvin G. Weinbaum, Charles Lister, and Gerald Feierstein provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the placement of Pakistan on a global terrorist financing "gray list," the ongoing assault on eastern Ghouta following a UNSC cease-fire resolution, and diplomatic efforts on the war in Yemen.

The United States has no closer Arab counterterrorism partner than the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Military and intelligence relations between the two countries date back to the 1950s. In recent decades, the two countries have worked closely to address shared security threats, shore up Jordan’s stability, and strengthen the kingdom’s capacity to confront terrorism at home. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria all strengthened these bonds, but the rise of the Islamic State group (IS) in 2014 saw bilateral security cooperation enter a new and even deeper phase of cooperation.

Looting and trafficking of antiquities in the Middle East and North Africa has reached unprecedented levels since the rise of ISIS. In a region with tens of thousands of archaeological sites, antiquities are as easily accessible as oil for terrorist groups.

This paper explores the relationship between terrorism and human rights from the international legal perspective, considering terrorism as both a cause and a product of human rights violations and what that means for counter-terrorism efforts.

The conditions that brought about the rise and spread of violent transnational movements in the Middle East are complex and have been long in the making.

Charles Lister, director of MEI's Extremism and Counterterrorism program, discusses what the recent terror attack in lower Manhattan, and the suspect's claimed connection to ISIS, mean for U.S. security and counterterrorism policy.