Al-Qaeda
Biden’s victories look a lot like defeats
Joe Biden’s week did not get off to a good start. When running for office in 2020 he repeatedly boasted…
Hubris, blunders and lies characterised the war in Afghanistan from the start
There was certainly no shortage of excellent advice about war in Afghanistan offered to many American leaders by many people over many years, says Justin Marozzi
Al Qaeda and Iran’s dangerous partnership
What does the world’s foremost Shia power and the most notorious Sunni terror group have in common? Given that the…
The wars go on
America’s longest war has just entered its 20th year. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban…
Is The Undoing properly great or just a run-of-mill thriller with a brilliant casting director?
There must be some people somewhere who vaguely know their own spouses — but if so, they don’t tend to…
An Al-Qaeda double agent explains what’s really going on in Middle East
When will the definitive history of the modern Middle East be written? For 20 years and more, a continent has…
The European fighters who battled Isis – and were abandoned by their governments
Foreign fighters are returning from the battlefield — not Islamists but the Americans, Europeans and South Americans who fought to…
As Assad recovers, Syria is returning to stability
In order to avoid the Labour conference and yet more predictable media attacks on Jeremy Corbyn, I escaped late last…
Islamic State is making its threats a reality
Isis could be on the brink of creating a terrifying new world order
Why I’ve finally given up on the left
I cannot be part of a movement run by half-educated fanatics
Meet the men taking up arms to protect the Middle East’s ancient treasures
Syrians, Libyans and Malians are risking their lives to save ancient treasures from Islamists – with shamefully little help from us
Even Nazis weren’t quite sure how to do the Hitler salute
Gesture politics A royal home movie from 1933 apparently showed the future Queen, aged seven, and her mother giving a…
Vespasian’s Middle East policy (it should be ours, too)
As Ahmed Rashid argued last week, it is hard to see what the West is doing in the Middle East,…
The enemy's enemy: how Arab states have turned to al-Qa’eda
Fear has driven the Arab states to support the West’s great enemy
Portrait of the week
Home Talha Asmal, aged 17, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, died in a suicide bomb attack on forces near an oil…
Why Saudi Arabia is kicking back against the USA
Why America’s once-cautious ally suddenly looks so skittish
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Why does Isis slay hostages? To cover up the fact that it’s losing
Isis slaughters kidnap victims because it guarantees headlines. It's better at slaughtering innocents than it is at winning wars
How Islamic State commanders squeeze their hostages for every penny
Islamic State commanders know exactly how to extract the greatest possible profit from their hostages. Some care about little else
Is London's West End Jewish enough for David Baddiel’s musical The Infidel?
David Baddiel has turned his movie, The Infidel, into a musical. The set-up is so contrived and clumsy that it…
Why Jonathan Powell thinks we'll have to negotiate with al-Qa’eda
Jonathan Powell is best known as Tony Blair’s fixer. He was intimately involved with the Northern Ireland peace process, about…
The lesson of the young men fighting for Isis: evil is in all of us
I had an interesting discussion with my friend Aidan Hartley earlier this week about whether the young men fighting for…
I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?
There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…
Please, Cameron – no moral grandstanding over Iraq
If there’s a bright spot in the murky mess of Iraq, it’s that finally we have a war that it…
The new Iraq war
Seven weeks ago, Barack Obama proclaimed that ‘it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade of war’.…
