CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler writes: "Two years ago, the world saw the return of a repressive Taliban regime. The rapid fall of the Afghan government sent shockwaves throughout neighbouring countries and beyond, as the new Taliban...

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Berlin-based Counter [Extremism] Project and an expert on Afghanistan, has seen it all before. Last time the Taliban were in power, from 1996-2001, they curtailed poppy production for the 2000-01 season...

Eye on Extremism: August 18, 2023

“The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Turkey-backed Syrian militias and the groups’ leaders accused of human rights abuses in Syria’s northwestern, opposition-held enclave. The groups are operating in the town of Afrin, which has...

Eye on Extremism: August 17, 2023

“The military takeover in Niger has upended years of Western counterterrorism efforts in West Africa and now poses wrenching new challenges for the Biden administration’s fight against Islamist militants on the continent. American-led efforts to...

[Translated from German] “Experts are irritated by this approach. 'It is hardly possible that a family built up a criminal organization alone over the years and operated,' says Alexander Ritzmann, who is at the think tank Counter-Extremism Project...

Eye on Extremism: August 16, 2023

“As a child studying in a madrasa in Afghanistan, Mohammad Khalid Tahir dreamed of waging jihad. By the time he was a teenager, he had joined the Taliban and celebrated when they seized power from the U.S.-backed government two years ago. But the...

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "There is ample evidence that the both al-Qaeda as well as the Islamic State affiliates that operate in West Africa are trying to take advantage of this situation. There has been just a couple...

Eye on Extremism: August 15, 2023

“Heavily armed law enforcement officers swarmed the Philadelphia home of a teenager who was plotting to launch a national terrorist attack, authorities said. The suspect, an unnamed 17-year-old, was in contact with a global terrorist group affiliated...

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "On this day, 25 years ago, not long after the ink had dried on the Good Friday Agreement, a car bomb exploded in the market town of Omagh in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The bomb had been set in the town’s...

"David Ibsen, the Executive Director of ‘The Counter Extremism Project’, explained that nationalists view the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan wars as a great tragedy (source). This somewhat explains why the group are seeking to consolidate...