September 7-10, 2020
The Executive Certificate Program in Counter-Terrorism Studies
The Counter-Terrorism Studies Program combines academic study, simulation models, workshops, and onsite briefings. The courses provide concentrated, in-depth exposure to the phenomenon of modern terrorism and its characteristics, modus operandi, scope and dissemination throughout the world.
ICT is involved in two EU Horizon 2020 projects aiming to counter-radicalization
This exhaustive fact-based analysis produced by AJC and the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) makes the case for the full designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Middle East Regional Security Situation interview with Dr. Ely Karmon
Counter Terrorism Today and Etai Handman interview Dr. Ely Karmon on Syria: Local, Regional, Global Battlefield
Monthly Report
Summary of Information on Jihadist Websites
July 2019
One of the most surprising developments in female involvement within various Islamic terrorist organizations is the way Jihadi organizations have allowed women to assume various roles, including battlefield positions and execution of terror attacks. These women are integrated into an arena that from a historical and classical perspective has been a male-dominated arena (Von Knop, 2007).
Ankara is seeking to expand its influence beyond the Middle East to Africa in a bid to transform Turkey from the regional state into a sort of neo-Ottoman Empire. After concluding an agreement with Qatar to build Turkey's first military base abroad (2015), as a projection of its expanded geopolitical and economic presence in East Africa, Turkey opened its largest overseas military training camp in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in September 2017. Turkey is currently among the countries training and equipping Somali forces amid a security and developmental bilateral agreements with Mogadishu.
On January 27, 2020, ISIS released a new audio speech by its spokesman Abu Hamzah Al-Qurashi, produced by its media arm Al-Furqan and distributed on social media. Al-Qurashi delivers a defiant message: ISIS is not only surviving, despite the declarations by consecutive U.S. presidents that it was finished, but it is also expanding its war against its enemies and that war now spans the globe. Notable in the speech was Al-Qurashi's declaration of war on Israel, calling on ISIS factions in the Sinai and Syria to attack it and urging Muslims to thwart the U.S. peace plan referred to as the "Deal of the Century." Urging ISIS fighters to step up their attacks, he called on Muslims everywhere to "emigrate" and join the ISIS branch nearest them.[1]
[1] https://www.memri.org/reports/isis-spokesman-dismisses-trumps-declarations-annihilating-isis-declares-war-israel-oh
As al-Quds force commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani was the architect of Iran's military involvement throughout the Middle East, especially in countries and regions considered a strategic asset for the regime to which it aspired to expand its presence and export its Islamist ideology.
Syria has been a key target of the Iranian hegemony in the region, being the only ally in the Arab world since the establishment of the Khomeinist regime in Iran.
Iran has therefore been highly motivated to assist the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime since the popular uprising against him in March 2011. Iranian aid has included an IRGC expeditionary force of several thousand fighters, who have served mainly as advisers to the Syrian army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) militias, thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and pro-Iranians militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as significant economic aid.
August 2019
[1] “Iranian, Saudi clerics believe coronavirus outbreak signals the 'near end of time',” The New Arab, March 17, 2020.
Terrorism in Burkina Faso first appeared on a large scale after the collapse of the Compaoré regime and the dissolution of the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP). Analysis of attacks in Burkina Faso from 2015 to 2019 shows that attacks have steadily increased in frequency, lethality, and sophistication. In 2019, the conflict in Burkina Faso accelerated at an unprecedented rate, with fatalities increasing by over 600%.
Written by Dr. Barak Ben-Zur and Gabriel Toole
International Institute For Counter-Terrorism