HUFFINGTON POST 09/29/14 By Michael Shank and Casey Harrity Authors Michael Shank and Casey Harrity published a policy brief this month as part of FCNL’s “Shared Security” series. For the full 20-page “Security in Yemen” report, click here. Below is the executive summary excerpted from the report. Yemen is on […]
POLITIX 09/27/14 By Michael Shank and Casey Harrity Yemen is on the brink of slipping back into chaos. Outcomes from the National Dialogue Conference, which concluded in January 2014, have been slowly and inadequately implemented. Grievances among minority groups and non-state actors are growing. The economy of Yemen is in […]
REUTERS 08/06/14 By Michael Shank Africa is the new frontier for the U.S. Defense Department. The Pentagon has applied counterterrorism tactics throughout the Middle East and, to a lesser extent, Central and South Asia. Now it is monitoring the African continent for counterterrorism initiatives. It staged more than 546 military […]
NATIONAL REVIEW 05/12/14 By Michael Shank What should be haram (“forbidden” in Arabic) in dealing with Nigeria’s now infamous and increasingly violent Boko Haram, after the group kidnapped more than 250 schoolgirls last month, is an approach that is as rudimentary as that of the kidnappers themselves. The group, officially […]
CDN 05/09/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, May 9, 2014 — Trust is essential for any society to function. If it’s not there, political and economic progress is impossible. That’s exactly what’s happening in Yemen right now. From the public’s perspective in Sana’a, the transitional government cannot be trusted, nor can […]
HUFFINGTON POST 05/09/14 By Michael Shank This week in Yemen – with foreign reporters getting deported and the blood of dead Yemeni soldiers staining the grounds of the presidential palace – is reaffirming for many in Washington the preconditioned negative image of the country, one predominantly characterized by al Qaeda’s […]
CDN 01/13/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, January 13, 2014 — As the U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that American soldiers are re-entering Somalia after 20-plus years avoiding the country, the need for new solutions to this crisis is critical. The answer to the rebel group al-Shabaab’s growth in […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 01/13/14 By Michael Shank That the Pentagon admitted, this month, to sending its military back into Somalia after a 20 year absence of explicit involvement (never mind the extensive covert operations in the country), should trouble anyone who cares about security on the Horn of […]
HUFFINGTON POST 01/11/14 By Michael Shank News that the Pentagon is sending its military back into Somalia, after 20 years, shows that America is still missing the point on the Horn of Africa when it comes to preventing violence. Has the Defense Department learned that little in its many misadventures […]
RT 10/07/13 Secretary of State John Kerry has justified the capture by US forces of a terrorism suspect in Tripoli as ‘legal and appropriate’. He thus responded to Libya governments’ demand for explanations over what happened. Kerry has reacted to the ‘kidnapping’ complaint from the Libyan government by recommending it […]