by Steven R. Corman
The Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM) Summit took place last week in New York City.  The event was announced during a press conference on November 24 by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Jim Glassman and Jared Cohen of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff.
During the conference, Glassman described the summit [...]

by Steven R. Corman
In two recent briefings, one for the MSM and one for bloggers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Jim Glassman spoke approvingly of an incident that took place in Colombia earlier this year.  It involved Facebook and a march against Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a Bolivarian revolutionary guerrilla organization.  [...]

by Mark Woodward*
In wars that are as much about ideas as they are about anything else, it is convenient to have enemies that are clearly defined, easily demonized and clearly distinguishable from real or imagined allies. When none are apparent we all too often imagine them. Referring to our opponents in the “Global War on [...]

by Steven R. Corman
A few weeks ago I wrote about an appearance by Michael Scheuer on a radio talk show.  The theme was the possible disintegration of al Qaeda based on recent denouncements and recantations by prominent  ideologues.  He was going against the grain, arguing that the reformed extremists were making their statements from prisons, [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Today Danger Room is reporting on an ABC news story about a video, purportedly posted by AQ operatives, calling for the use of WMDs against the West. The story quotes an FBI spokesman to support the claim.
The trouble is, the tape appears to be a mashup of previously released videos, apparently [...]

by Steven R. Corman 
Writing in the CT Blog, Jeffrey Imm argues that “any blueprint strategy for national security must define Jihad, must address it within the national security threat, and must also define a national policy on the ideology of political Islamism.” But, Imm says, we have no such definition, and Islamist organizations like the [...]

by Steven R. Corman
In today’s New York Times, General Charles Dunlap Jr. argues that the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual is being misinterpreted and that we must deal with insurgents the old-fashioned way–by killing them:
Unfortunately, starry-eyed enthusiasts have misread the manual to say that defeating an insurgency is all about winning hearts and minds with teams [...]

Rhetoric based on the spread of an idea rather than material success powerfully illustrates the self-definition, and close engagement with on-going controversies highlighted by Ikwanweb.com.