Want to thank secretary carter and chairman dunford who just returned from meetings with our Coalition Partners in the middle east for hosting us and for their continued leadership of our men and women in uniform. Obama i last updated the American People on our campaign in june shortly after the horrifying attack in orlando. In the weeks since, weve continued to be relentless in our fight against isil. And on the ground in syria and iraq, isil continues to lose territory. Tragically, however, we have also seen that isil still has the ability to direct and inspire attacks. So weve seen terrible bombings in iraq and in jordan, in lebanon, saudi arabia, yemen, and afghanistan, attacks on an istanbul airport, a restaurant in bangladesh, bastille Day Celebrations and a church in france, and a Music Festival in germany. In fact, the decline of isil in syria and iraq appears to be causing it to shift to tactics that weve seen before; an even greater emphasis on encouraging high profile terror
April 29, 2021
Mark Youngman and Cerwyn Moore
In both Syria and the North Caucasus, Russia claims success in fighting insurgency and terrorism, offering itself as a model of best practice. Closer examination, however, shows that this “success” carries major caveats and is more illusory than it first appears. This article considers the link between Russian-speaking foreign fighters in Syria and domestic jihadism, the lessons of Russia’s counterinsurgency approach and the potential for further conflict in the North Caucasus. It argues that Russia has successfully defeated the domestic insurgency, in part by displacing the conflict to Syria, but has remained in the crosshairs of Russian nationals recruited to fight abroad. Furthermore, Russia’s failure to address underlying problems makes it likely the North Caucasus will continue to experience low levels of violence and instability, even if the re-emergence of organized insurgency is unlikely in the short term.