Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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“ISIS Is One Piece of the Puzzle” — 276_schwedler

MER Article

“ISIS Is One Piece of the Puzzle”

Yifat Susskind is executive director of MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization based in New York. Jillian Schwedler spoke with her on October 28, 2015, the week after Yanar Mohammed, head of MADRE’s partner group the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), testified before the

Jillian Schwedler • 12 min read

MER Article

Regional Responses to the Rise of ISIS

Regional responses to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have varied depending on regime perceptions of threat, not only from ISIS itself, but also from other potential rivals, challengers or enemies. Despite the jihadi group’s extensive use of violence in Syria and Iraq and i

Curtis Ryan • 14 min read

MER Article

A Jihadism Anti-Primer

The US national security state has for the past quarter-century been preoccupied with something it has called “jihadism.” From the aftermath of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan through the September 11, 2001 attacks to the rise of the self-declared Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, or ISIS, the spect

Darryl Li • 15 min read

Eritrean Afars — 276_connell

MER Article

Eritrean Afars

Ahmed, a 25-year old Afar who served eight years in the Eritrean infantry, fled his country in 2006. He went first to Djibouti, and then to neighboring Ethiopia but, finding no work and fearing the risks of crossing the Mediterranean Sea, he went back to his first place of refuge. I met him in Djibo

Dan Connell • 14 min read

MER Article

On ISIS

In early June 2014 the world was shocked by news of the fall of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq, to jihadi militants loyal to something called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The conquest was rapid—soldiers of the Iraqi army dropped their weapons and fled rather than resist the I

The Editors • 17 min read