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Kobanê teeters on the brink in a fight to the end against ISIS
The black flag of ISIS has been sighted in the Syrian city of Kobanê. For three weeks, heavily armed ISIS gangs have advanced on Kobanê – also known as Ayn al-Arab – steadily pushing back the local YPG...
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Why Western boots should stay out of Iraq and Syria
An Australian Super Hornet refuels from a KC30 tanker while flying over Iraq. @VCDF_Australia/TwitterThere are two reasons why we should ignore the growing calls in the United States, Canada and...
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Grattan on Friday: Banning Hizb ut-Tahrir would probably be...
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has raised the possibility of banning radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. AAP/Mick TsikasFairfax journalist Tony Wright tweeted on Thursday: “In-air bombing operational...
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Was Al-Qaeda a winner or loser from the Arab uprisings?
At first glance it appears that the Arab uprisings have strengthened Al-Qaeda and similar groups that fly the black banner. With the possible exception of Tunisia, the rest of the “Arab Spring”...
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The best weapon against terrorists: oblivion
In 2009, communications scholars Esra Özcan, Ognyan Seizov and I wrote an academic paper on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy and its aftermath. We concluded that “visuals have to be taken more...
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Jordan and ISIS: will the brutal murder of a fighter pilot change hearts and...
Thousands of Jordanians - including the country’s Queen Rania - took to the streets of the capital Amman February 6. They were protesting the burning alive of the Jordanian fighter pilot Moaz...
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Social media helps make cultural icons a new target for terrorism
Footage of published by Islamic State of militants destroying artefacts in a museum in Mosul, Iraq. Recent postings on social media of the destruction of 3,000 year-old Assyrian sculptures by ISIS...
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All is not lost in ISIS's attempt to smash the past
Human-headed winged bulls guarding a door in Dur-Sharrukin. Poulpy/, CC BY-SAThe archaeological and historical communities are deeply dismayed about ISIS destroying archaeological sites and materials...
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ANZAC troops' mission to Iraq undermined by petty NZ politics
Over the next month, New Zealand will deploy 143 troops to Iraq, working with 330 Australians to train Iraqi security forces in the fight against Islamic State. On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister...
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Explainer: ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State or Da'esh?
What’s in a name? Australia is at war with a group that has destabilised the Middle East and threatens Western societies yet the international community can’t agree on what to call it. Is it Islamic...
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The ISIS takeover of Ramadi means hard choices face the Iraqi and US governments
ISIS take Ramadi; on the move in Iraq Steve Allen/Shutterstock Last Friday, the city of Ramadi – provincial capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, and symbolic seat of its Sunni population – fell to an ISIS...
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How the US is expanding its fight against extremism in Africa
The opening ceremony of an exercise organized by the US military in Ndjamena, Chad earlier this year to take on Boko Haram. Reuters/Emmanuel Braun From the perspective of a US national security...
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Islamic State versus Da'ish or Daesh? The political battle over naming
In responding to the attacks on multiple sites in Paris, French President François Hollande announced that Da’ish had declared war on France and promised retaliation. But why didn’t he call it the...
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Anonymous hackers could be Islamic State's online nemesis
Blocking IS one click at a time? Pierre (Rennes)/flickr, CC BY-SAOne of the key issues the West has had to face in countering Islamic State (IS) is the jihadi group’s mastery of online propaganda, seen...
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To defeat Islamic State we must sever its oil lifeline – here's how
USAFThe high costs of running the Islamic State’s “caliphate” and fighting a ground war are largely met from selling oil, supplemented with donations and money extorted from Christians and hostages....
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What really threatens America: Zika, cancer or ISIS?
The unfolding information about the Zika virus and saddening images of babies infected with microcephaly should really scare us all. The disease has spread “explosively” throughout the Americas, with...
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Here's how radical groups like Islamic State use social media to attract...
from www.shutterstock.comFollowing the deaths of several African American men at the hands of police last year, the Twitter hashtag #blacklivesmatter enabled people from around the world to discuss...
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Not really Hollywood: the media’s misleading framing of Islamic State videos
A still from the most recent Islamic State video, released last week. YoutubeIn 2014 the Islamic State (IS) became a factory of propaganda videos, many of which depict executions. The first to attract...
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Is the Islamic State finished? Five possible scenarios
Most military analysts believe it’s only a matter of time before Mosul falls. Mosul is Iraq’s third largest city. The Islamic State captured it in June 2014 during a campaign that left it in control of...
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NATO's future when America comes first
Former President Obama famously suggested in a 2016 interview that he questioned a set of orthodox assumptions about American foreign policy that he labeled “the Washington Playbook.” That orthodoxy,...
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