Max Blaisdell

The Paris attacks this fall brought to the fore the threat of European citizens recruited by ISIS returning to their European homes and committing violent acts. While increased security measures across Europe are certainly important to…
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Just before the New Year, a group of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s close associates demanded to meet with the former FLN revolutionary, as they had not seen him in over a year. Rumors swirled across the capital that a ruling…
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The recent terrorist attacks committed in Istanbul and in Ankara and the downing of a Russian fighter jet on Turkey's Syrian border have heightened attention to the foreign policy decisions that motivate and led to Turkey's involvement in…
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The protest movements of the Arab Spring prompted a major reevaluation amongst policymakers and academics alike about authoritarian regime stability in the Middle East. Counter to the euphoria that greeted the protests, continued…
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The arresting images and videos of refugees fleeing to Europe have brought the Syrian Civil War back into the public attention of the West, despite the fact that there has been no cessation in the fighting for over four years. The war broke…
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When the staunchly conservative members of the United States government echo and applaud the fear-mongering statements of Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister, it is evident that political partisanship has taken complete hold over the…
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The history of scandals, virulent denunciations and accusations, and near warfare between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran casts doubt over the ongoing nuclear negotiations. From the perspective of many in the West, the…
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Dear Mr. President, Few Nobel Peace Prize Laureates see the use of force as a means for preserving a peaceful international order, so it is indeed surprising that you as the commander-in-chief of the world’s largest and most active…
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Throughout history, the normative concept of states evolved and in the modern era statehood is granted through international recognition. According to the political scientist J. E. Petersen, who works for The Center for Middle Eastern…
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The expressed mission of ISIS is the creation of a caliphate to rule over the entire Muslim ummah, the entire Islamic community. Such a mission runs completely counter to the modern sovereign state regime because of its goal to…
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