ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS

Despite attempts by the US administration to downplay the impact of the recently leaked files on the Afghan conflict, reports have found that it could put many lives at risk.

SHIRAZ MAHER

There is an interesting table produced by the New Republic symposium on Afghanistan giving an overview of what has - and hasn't - changed since the Taliban were in power.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

This is the question that my former colleague, Jacob Amis, and I have analysed in our paper for the latest issue of Hudson's Current Trends in Islamist Ideology.  In the piece, we attempt to provide an overview of the parallel journeys to jihad of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the so-called "underwear bomber") and his al-Qaeda mentor, Anwar al-Awlaki.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS

In light of the recent news that the Prevent programme will be cut, FocusonIslamism presents a short series on the Preventing Violent Extremism project.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS

I have just received an email from the Libya Human and Political Development Forum (LHPDF) which provides a summary of a very interesting series of discussions, organised by the Libyan online newspaper Akhbar Libya, about the deradicalisation of salafi-jihadi groups.  Among those present was the Director of the LHPDF, Noman Benotman, himself a former senior member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which publically rejected its previous support for salafi-jihadism in September 2009.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

The Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) fund - a project set up as part of the CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy to fund groups that will prevent extremism at its root - is facing the axe.