Syrian Civil War
All topics-
IS and its media
Calling all suicide bombers
The media is playing its part in today's horror as "Islamic State" showcases its terrorists in magazines, videos and on the Internet to recruit new members. Joseph Croitoru examines how IS strategy has developed and evolved
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Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: "Protect humanity - Stop Indifference"
Governments as well as aid and humanitarian organisations need to do more to protect and promote the dignity and safety of all migrants, as well as ensuring their access to essential services
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Western involvement in Syria
Fewer bombs, not more!
Only when the West has helped to end the war in Syria, or at least Assad's airstrikes, can it count on Syrian support in the fight against IS. To protect Syrians in their homeland, Germany in particular should be advocating no-bombing zones, says Kristin Helberg
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Airstrikes against IS
Solidarity yet no strategy
Western airstrikes will fail to have any significant impact on the terrorist militia as long as the Syrian rebels, prevented from focusing their efforts on the jihadists by the ongoing offensive staged by Assad′s regime, have to defend themselves simultaneously against IS and Assad. A commentary by Bente Scheller
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Interview with Arun Kundnani
Violence comes home
After the Paris attacks, what are the logical and tragic consequences of a war with no geographical limits? In this interview, Arun Kundnani unveils and critiques the ramifications of the ″war on terror″, from the conservative and liberal rhetoric of the intellectuals and commentators who have emerged, to the theories of ″radicalisation″ which have fuelled counter-terrorism programmes in the West
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IS and the lessons learnt
Negotiating beyond time and space
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is a recruitment tool for the IS and has to go. Nevertheless, a successor government needs to be able to keep order and cannot allow the jihadists to exploit a power vacuum, as it has in Libya. An essay by Richard N. Haass
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The emotional wounds of refugee children
Talking about the unspeakable
Refugee children experience awful situations while on the run. They do not talk about these traumatic experiences and are often left alone with their suffering. Now, in the city of Ulm, people are trying to help. A report by Sabrina Pabst
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The Paris attacks and Arab responsibility
Are we accomplices?
The massacres in Paris showed what a catastrophe the Al-Baghdadi "caliphate" represents and how it threatens to drag whole generations into a "clash of cultures". High time for Arabs and Muslims to seek out the roots of the fanaticism and delusion that have spread since 9/11, says the Lebanese journalist Zuheir Quseibati, bureau chief of "Al-Hayat" newspaper
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Paris aftermath
Jihadists drive the wedge deeper
The latest attacks by IS are an attempt to exploit societal rifts at the heart of Europe. Without a concerted effort to address deep-seated and justified concerns relating to domestic social and economic policy, France′s retaliatory strikes are likely to achieve little. By James Dorsey
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Interview with the Islam expert Olivier Roy
European Islam: destined to be ignored
The links between Europe and the Maghreb are stronger than many would like to believe. Politicians on both sides of the Mediterranean, in particular, are ignoring the emergence of a specifically European brand of Islam, says the French political scientist and Islamic studies expert Olivier Roy. The interview was conducted by Federica Zoja
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Chronicle of a war foretold
Redefining the "Syrian" conflict
The war waging in Syria, hijacked by opposing ideologies just months after it began, has had an irrevocable impact on the Syrian people. Although not much is heard of Syrians outside the refugee camps, Americans, Europeans, Russians, Turks, Iranians, and Arabs hold meeting after meeting to agree and disagree, coalesce and collide, in an attempt to halt the ″Syrian conflict″. By Hakim Khatib
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Syria and the "Lost Origin Sound" project
The timely involvement of a punk rocker
In the years before the Syrian civil war started, an American punk rocker set out to record the country′s cultural heritage. Now Jason Hamacher is receiving requests from various cultural organisations planning the reconstruction of Syria. By Marian Brehmer