This report is based on six months of field research between January and June 2010, funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace and Canadian Global Peace and Security Fund. The aim was to better understand insurgent motivations and objectives, and in light of… Read more
Summary Reforms to antiterrorism legislation are required to improve its effectiveness and fairness and make it possible to engage diplomatically with proscribed armed groups. The legal bases for proscription should be clarified and the criteria for… Read more
Summary The longer a terrorist group has been in existence, the more likely it is to engage in negotiations. Even so, only about 18 percent of terrorist groups engage in talks on strategic issues at all. When groups do enter talks, the most common… Read more
Interviews and personal histories of 2,032 "foreign fighters" show that rather than be recruited, young men actively seek out al-Qaeda and its associated movements. Al-Qaeda is more than just an organization; it is an ideology and a popular global brand… Read more
Hamas's landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections of January 2006 came as an unwelcome and unexpected shock to both Middle Eastern and international regimes, with the organization winning nearly 58 percent of the Palestinian… Read more
OverviewOver the past four years, suicide bombings have become a choice weapon of the insurgency in Iraq. Today, terrorists and insurgents perpetrate suicide attacks regularly, taking a profound physical and psychological toll on the local population and… Read more
At dawn on October 30, 2006, two missile strikes rocked the Zia-ul-Uloom madrassah in Chinagai, a border village in the Bajour province of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). This incident, and its aftermath, raises broader questions… Read more