The priorities of the Iranian intelligence and security system seem to be directed towards the maintenance of domestic stability, the surveillance of foreign powers that could threaten Iran, the warning over possible actions and redirecting attention from them as well as the procurement of better defense capabilities. The "secrecy" that characterizes the Iranian regime and organizations is specific to the intelligence services too. The president has more authority with the MOIS, one of the ministries of the government, while the IRGC has become a national institution under the leadership of...

The military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a pious Muslim mentor of Erdogan who was disliked by Turkey's secular establishment, out of power in 1997. In 2007, the military threatened to intervene in a presidential election and warned the government to curb Islamic influences, but the action backfired and Abdullah Gul, the candidate favored by a government with Islamic leanings, took office.

On a cold and blustery evening in December 1989, Huthaifa Azzam, the teenage son of the legendary Jordanian-Palestinian mujahideen leader Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, went to the airport in Peshawar, Pakistan, to welcome a group of young men. All were new recruits, largely from Jordan, and they had come to fight in a fratricidal civil war in neighboring Afghanistan-an outgrowth of the CIA-financed jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet occupation there. The men were scruffy, Huthaifa mused as he greeted them, and seemed hardly in battle-ready form. Some had just been released from prison; others...

Sur les 15 millions de Musulmans recenses en Europe de l'Ouest, plus de 5 millions sont installes en France qui est l'Etat occidental comptant la plus forte proportion de Musulmans au sein de sa population. Depuis le debut des annees 2000, le phenomene islamiste ne cesse de croitre, essentiellement concentre dans les banlieues des grandes agglomerations. Les extremistes sont devenus des acteurs majeurs des zones sensibles et les signes de progression de l'islam radical s'observent chaque jour. Le ministere de l'Interieur evalue a 50 000 le nombre de nouveaux convertis dans notre pays en...

The Gulen movement is attracting increasing and sometimes hostile attention both inside Turkey and beyond as a result of its increasing activity, wealth, and influence. Inspired by the thoughts of its founder, Sufi scholar Fethullah Gulen, it has established hundreds of educational institutions, as well as media outlets, dialogue platforms, and charities. Well-established in Turkey, it has expanded into the wider Turkic world and, increasingly, beyond. Yet its structure, ambitions, and size remain opaque, making assessment of its impact and power difficult.

The Trump Effect is a kind of sickness in the democratic system. The early symptoms-nativist grumblings, nocturnal tweeting, and disinhibited behavior around women and immigrants-may lead to a crisis, especially in cases where the major parties have left their voters to fend for themselves in a globalized economy. This crisis may continue for as long as four years. Public life may be impaired and civility permanently weakened. Grandiosity and an increase in risk-taking behavior may lead to a rise in the racial temperature and the loss of old friendships. It is not yet clear if the Trump...

Two years into the fight against Isis, more than 15 of the group's most senior members have been killed by airstrikes. They include Baghdadi's former deputies Abu Muslim al-Turkmani and Abu Ali al-Anbari, Omar al-Shishani, the head of the group's chemical weapons programme in Iraq, Abu Malik and numerous regional leaders in Anbar and Nineveh province. Last year Baghdadi very nearly joined them.