All Policy Analysis by Jacob Olidort

"How" to read seems a strange and perhaps even condescending way to propose a book list. However, given that reading takes time, and that those who might have the most use for good reads often have little time and long lists to go through, as well as many outlets to

An approach to jihadism rooted in "informed patriotism," a concept introduced by Ronald Reagan, would likely be more realistic and successful than one rooted in absolutism.

The Hashemite Kingdom, known for its effectiveness in fighting terrorism, illustrates how a country can manage jihadists at home without needing to eradicate them.

The Hashemite Kingdom, known for its effectiveness in fighting terrorism, illustrates how a country can manage jihadists at home without needing to eradicate them.

Jihadists have become uniquely sensitized to the doctrinal and political stakes in their own names, so the United States should think carefully about the labels it applies to groups like the Islamic State.

Preventing and countering violent extremism is not a soft alternative to counterterrorism, but an essential toolkit to complement law enforcement's ongoing efforts to prevent violence.

Symbolic gestures from Washington can be especially effective in a region where context is often more important than substance, and whose conflicts are based around perceptions of those contexts.

Defeating today’s decentralized jihadi threat means treating the soil in which the weeds grow, not pulling them out one by one.

The group's pioneering use of jihadist social media and communications ensures that its message will continue resonating well past the loss of Mosul and other strongholds.

While the group's core appeal among most recruits is its supposed Salafi orientation, the project of raising a generation of Islamic State 'citizens' is driven by factors that have little relation to Salafi doctrines.

The group's use of children as suicide bombers highlights its broader indoctrination practices, which mirror many of the mundane techniques used in normal educational curricula.

Even after the group is defeated in Iraq and Syria, it will maintain the intellectual arsenal it has constructed for its supporters, so the U.S. should prepare for the next stage of the fight accordingly.

Two years after the declaration of a caliphate by the Islamic State, the world has become well acquainted with the group's brutality, territorial expansion, apocalyptic narrative, and ability to stage large-scale terrorist attacks inside and outside the Middle East. Less discussed are IS textbooks and book-publishing activities. Our knowledge of

Murdering civilians for celebrating Bastille Day is the group's warped way of showing that any kind of political allegiances and national pride are violations of Islam, and that joining the Islamic State is the only path for true Muslims.

Just how "Islamic" is the Islamic State? Watch video or read a summary of two scholars discussing how the self-declared "caliphate" uses religious doctrine and potent publishing activities to justify its actions.

After several months of directing or inspiring spectacular attacks on soft targets in Europe and the United States, the group may now be signaling its intent to start a new wave of violence that will 'punish' Westerners for their supposed 'legal deviance from Islam.'

While America's counter-ISIS strategy may end up being the final nail in the group's coffin, it is only the first step in preventing jihadists from exploiting political vulnerabilities in the Middle East to inspire vigilante violence at home.