The Non-State Update: January 2, 2015

Welcome to this weekend’s Non-State Update. Happy New Year, everyone! Below is a list of some of the best news and analysis articles from this week. Like the rest of Drugs and Thugs Blog, the topics addressed are terrorism, insurgency, transnational criminal organizations, and narcotics trafficking. 

The Pentagon Still Doesn’t Know How to Fight Jihadists on the Battlefield of Ideas: First off, Aki Peritz at Overt Action has an article on the US’s inability to understand and compete with jihadist ideology, despite over a decade of experience in the field. If we really haven’t learned any lessons on this topic over the preceding years, this should be a major concern for counter-terrorism practitioners. 

Around an Invisible Leader, Taliban Power Shifts: At The New York Times, Matthew Rosenberg with a piece on the changing leadership dynamic in the Taliban, as Mullah Omar becomes increasingly reclusive and isolated. Little is known about Omar, but he continues to organize one of the most successful and long-running insurgencies. If this dynamic is changing, it could cause a huge shift in the Afghan conflict. 

Is America’s Longest War Really Over?: At Slate’s The World Blog, Joshua Keating has a post on the official end of the War in Afghanistan. Although the combat portion of the war is now over, that does not mean that traditional combat is finished. Like in Iraq, US soldiers will remain in country. Although we’ve declared the war over, the fighting will continue. 

Latin America Organized Crime: What to Expect in 2015: Jeremy McDermott has an interesting piece at InSight Crime with some predictions for the next year. The seven Latin American countries highlighted all have serious concerns with organized crime. Hopefully, 2015 is the year in which some of these negative trends reverse. 

Insuring Against Terrorism, Without the Training Wheels: At Foreign Policy, Jamila Trindle reports on the end of the federal terrorism risk insurance program. Without the federal backing, the insurance market has no governmental backstop in the event of a terrorist attack. Although the program has never been used, it did provide a level of security for insurance companies. 

Jihadists Continue to Advertise Training Camps in Iraq and Syria: At the Long War Journal, Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss have an article and a detailed map on the locations of jihadist training camps. The 64 identified camps are roughly split between ISIS and al-Nusrah Front and are used frequently in social media propaganda by the two organizations. 

Devils Duo: FARC and al Qaeda: At Money Jihad, a short post on news that FARC and al-Qaeda’s North African group (AQIM) have collaborated in smuggling operations, with terrorists providing protection for narcotics shipments. The nexus between drug cartels and terrorist groups is concerning; this is certainly something to keep an eye on.

Cameroon Launches First Airstrikes Against Boko Haram: Finally, a post from FP’s Passport blog by Sibohan O’Grady on news that Cameroon has attacked a Boko Haram outpost in response to Boko Haram’s cross-border operations. Although Cameroon’s involvement is encouraging, all countries in the region need to cooperate to rid Nigeria of the insurgency. Nigerian security should matter for all of its neighbors. 

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the weekend. 

For comments, thoughts, concerns, criticism, or submissions to D&TB, please comment below, email me at conormlarkin@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @ConorMLarkin.