Wolfy's Random NetSec Article Post! (Stuff to read)

[Wolfy]

Figured every so often, since Star Citizen is talking it's sweet, sweet time to finish adding Space Kitty's into the game, I would post interesting articles from around the NatSec community and some other Murica!!! related stuff that... relates... to world security or trade or something. I'm drunk. Yay!

The article for today is Where Will the Islamic State Go Next? by Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

In this article he discusses the successful start of the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, and it's later fall. He continues to speculate on where they will go next and provides a great analysis on the reasons terrorist ideologies spread in areas found in the Middle East and Africa.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/where-will-islamic-state-go-next

23 June 2018

 

[CosmicTrader]

it's later fall.

Now that is News...........

 

[maynard]

ISIS will face massive attacks anywhere it announces the re-establishment of the Caliphate

they can be players in any number of civil wars but they will never achieve 'nationhood' again

which is going to hamper their recruitment and fund-raising

'peak ISIS' has come and gone

 

[Vavrik]

... I think I disagree with the sentiment being expressed here. Perhaps ISIS is done, we shall see. The problem is Western, and also Oriental culture have no idea of the power the idea of the Caliphate has in Islam. This one, and others that have come before, may have failed, but the ideal has never had more popular appeal.

 

[Wolfy]

Now that is News...........

Considering it's massive loss of territory and command structure it's largely agreed to be in a fast downspiral, particularly after it lost the oil revenue it previously maintained control of.

 

[Sraika]

I'm not sure i'm qualified to have an opinion on this, but i'm pretty sure he's got no idea what he's talking about...

 

[Wolfy]

I'm not sure i'm qualified to have an opinion on this, but i'm pretty sure he's got no idea what he's talking about...

In what way? His analysis is pretty spot on in regard to the issues in the region.

 

[Talonsbane]

This post might just be shit, but I declare that ISIS has already made their nefarious move. They have somehow managed to both launch themselves into deep space where they have morphed & mutated into the Vanduul. Which explains a lot I would say. Also, unfortunately for @Wolfy , they have chosen to attack him directly by attempting to infest all space kitties with alien fleas that are immune to all human known pesticides. Let us reflect on the foresight of the prophet Chris Roberts for granting us with this wisdom. In the tradition of ancient TESTies, let us join together to chant the eternal harmonizing word of @Montoya , "B-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r"

 

[Sraika]

In what way? His analysis is pretty spot on in regard to the issues in the region.

Sure, and at the very least it seems decently researched, but it also seems to me that he didn't look very hard at any alternatives, and his conclusions give me strong "confirmation bias" vibes.
I don't know enough about the subject to say if that's true or not, though, so it might just be me.

 

[Radegast74]

I'll just add my salty $0.02 here.

US policy has been (to say the least!) totally un-nuanced during my lifetime. It has consistently been, "If you are not for us, you are against us!"

This has lead to, over the last 40 years, see-sawing between "This group is our enemy" to "No, this other group is now our enemy."
Also during this interval, time has not stood still. More countries now have advanced technology and have access to or have acquired nuclear weapons tech.

Are we any safer now than we were before? Is the world any safer now than before? I would argue that our real enemy here are governments that are corrupt and stifle the economies of their countries, which in turn creates horrible economic conditions, which breeds weird ideologies of all sorts (not just religious extremism, but also violent political ideology and criminal organizations).

I haven't read anything recently in the last decade on this (no point, we just continue making the same damn mistakes, over and over). The best books from a decade ago were:
1. "The Looming Tower" -- interesting book describing the origins of the Taliban and their ideology, tracing it back to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was actually not a bad group to begin with...
https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al-Qaeda-Road-11/dp/1400030846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529861760&sr=1-1&keywords=the+looming+tower+book

2. "The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday" -- an account and tour of the Middle East by a New York Times reporter who grew up there and spent a lot of his life in the region. Almost completely outdated now, after the "Arab Spring" and other events, but notable for his "blueprint" of how to get a pro-US groundswell in people of all countries: emphasize our good ol' USA values of education for all, and justice & law. How well we have been doing that is up for debate, as well...
https://www.amazon.com/Relations-Department-Hizbollah-Wishes-Birthday/dp/1586488112

 

[Tealwraith]

I have to ask, does anyone know yet what a FLO pet looks like and does it resemble, in any way, even superficially, a 'Space Kitty'?

 

[Wolfy]

Sure, and at the very least it seems decently researched, but it also seems to me that he didn't look very hard at any alternatives, and his conclusions give me strong "confirmation bias" vibes.
I don't know enough about the subject to say if that's true or not, though, so it might just be me.

Oh yeah, it is riddled with holes in the way that it focuses on one outcome for the group, but the entire firm he works for tends to do that, it's just an interesting view on what would potentially happen if they came back.

 

[Sirus7264]

Figured every so often, since Star Citizen is talking it's sweet, sweet time to finish adding Space Kitty's into the game, I would post interesting articles from around the NatSec community and some other Murica!!! related stuff that... relates... to world security or trade or something. I'm drunk. Yay!

The article for today is Where Will the Islamic State Go Next? by Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

In this article he discusses the successful start of the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, and it's later fall. He continues to speculate on where they will go next and provides a great analysis on the reasons terrorist ideologies spread in areas found in the Middle East and Africa.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/where-will-islamic-state-go-next

23 June 2018

Interesting i'll have to read this later. that whole ordeal was such a mess people truely did show their true colors.