FPRI Insights Issue 2

• September 6, 2014

Recent Publications by FPRI

Over the past two weeks, FPRI’s Clint Watts has been interviewed, cited, or quoted on the conflict with ISIS and al Shabaab in Vox.com, The Huffington Post, The Hill, The Global Post, NPR, and The Daily Beast. He also writes regularly over at Geopoliticus: The FPRI Blog. On September 16, he will address our Ginsburg Lecture Series in Philadelphia on ISIS on the March?

 

September 6, 2014
FPRI’s Michael Noonan Writes for War on the Rocks Refelcting on the President’s Speech in Estonia

“It is all good and fine for countries in the region to develop cartoons and other things to counter the messages of ISIL’s extremism, but at the end of the day it becomes a contest of legitimacy between the governments in the region (who want to remain in power) and the appeal of ISIL.”

 

September 6, 2014
FPRI’s Barak Mendelsohn Quoted in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on ISIS

“Al-Qaida has similar ambitions, but compared with ISIS, it has tried to pull a broader group of Muslims under its umbrella through persuasion rather than through immediate, violent coercion…They all of course have the same goal of eventually establishing the caliphate…The argument with ISIS is that they didn’t consult with anybody but chose just to crown themselves.”

 

September 6, 2014
FPRI’s Jacques deLisle Quoted in South China Morning Post on Xi Jinping’s Lack of Political Reforms

“The picture that has emerged in Xi’s first two years in power is that either he does not have a political reform agenda with liberal or democratic elements, or that it is not his priority. It ranks below economic reform, anti-corruption, and other issues related to the legitimacy of the party.”

 

September 4, 2014
FPRI’s Barak Mendelsohn Quoted on the Role of China and Russia in Combating ISIS

 

“They’re probably glad to see that nobody thinks that they have a responsibility to share the burden…They, too, have an interest in seeing ISIS defeated but they prefer a free ride and are probably happy to see the U.S. seeming all confused. I don’t think they will be against international action in Iraq. Syria may be a different story.”

 

September 4, 2014
FPRI’s Michael Noonan Quoted on Confronting the “Football Industrial Complex”

“Quick, violent action. Fighting similarly organised foes. Defined end-states with a clear victor. This is how most military professionals would also prefer war.”

 

September 2, 2014
FPRI’s Abdallah Schleifer on the Battle for the Soul of the Muslim World

 

“As an American Muslim and as a journalist, I am more than appalled by the murder of James Foley and the murder video. If I were king of whatever/wherever, I would go to war to wipe out these Islamic State perverts – perverters not just of Islam, but of all the decencies known to all men and women of all the traditional faiths and to all men and women of just simple decent feelings.”

 

 

September 2, 2014
FPRI Trustee John Lehman Writes on American Seapower for the 21st Century

“With 90 percent of global trade carried by sea, and the vast majority of international financial transactions conducted via undersea cables, the U.S. Navy is the backstop for securing a stable global financial system for the U.S. economy to operate in. In addition, the Navy is a highly versatile force that can generate sovereign, forward-deployed military power to do anything from strategic nuclear deterrence to humanitarian assistance. Whether it is launching air strikes against Islamist militants in Iraq or evacuating civilians from conflict zones, this flexibility makes naval power uniquely suited to an international security environment that requires scalpels in some instances and axes in others.”

 

September 1, 2014
FPRI’s David Danelo on ISIS and the Fate of a Free Middle East

“The nature of the threat that IS poses means that the security of the West depends on two things: the destruction of IS and the preservation of a stable Kurdish region.”