Any hasty foreign-troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would lead to a fiasco similar to the Soviet retreat from the country in the 1980s and would result in chaos, says Amin Saikal

Foreign terrorist fighters have travelled from Ireland to North Africa, the EU police agency says.

I was very interested in your editorial ‘Fundamentalist excluded — Ban on hate preacher is appropriate’ (Irish Examiner, May 14).

An Algerian man with alleged links to Islamic terrorism has been allowed by the High Court to amend his latest legal challenge against a refusal by the Minister for Justice to revoke a deportation order made against him.

Irish soldiers could be deployed in war-torn Syria before the end of the year, even though the country has become the centre of a new Cold War-era battle between Russia, the US, Britain, France, and their proxy allies.

As hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya Muslim minority flee ethnic conflict in Myanmar, Brahma Chellaney looks at the history of the country’s simmering internal divisions.

Two members of the Defence Forces caught up in a suspected jihadist terror attack in West Africa have been reported safe and unharmed.

An Algerian man who was recently arrested by Gardaí on suspicion of being involved in terrorism is set to be deported after a he lost a case aimed at preventing his removal from the State, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

‘Russian hackers’ are blamed for everything, the latest being breaching Qatar’s news agency, sparking a row with the Saudis. This makes no sense, says Leonid Bershidsky.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a shoot-out in Australia in which two men died, three police officers were injured and a female hostage was freed.

America’s global re-engagement should be welcomed, but not through a military lens. Diplomacy, not fighting, brings peace, says Carl Bildt.

As China continues to expand its sphere of influence, Brahma Chellaney looks at the steps the US can take to demonstrate its concerns.

There is a long history of the CIA briefing presidents-elect on foreign policy. Donald Trump has rebuffed the agency’s advice. Tim Weiner asks why

Donald Trump’s habit of peddling hype and fabrication emerged unabated in the first presidential debate while Hillary Clinton played it cautiously in her statements, though not without error. They both denied making statements that they are on the record as saying.

Oliver Stone’s film ‘Snowden’ may change US public opinion and garner support to pardon the whistleblower, who performed a public service in the public interest, says James Bamford.

Homeland kicked off on Showtime in 2011 and has been motoring through seasons ever since.

The European Union is facing an “elevated threat” from Islamic extremists with a trebling in jihadist arrests in the last two years, according to the EU police agency.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

Omar Mateen’s alcohol use and conflicted sexuality are at odds with the terrorists’ religious credo, but losing in Iraq and Syria, it is desperate for a win, say Lori Hinnant and Sarah El Deeb

It’s unlikely that Omar Mateen, who killed 50 people in a nightclub at the weekend, was directly linked to IS. Lack of gun control and mental illness may be factors, says Peter Apps

Frightened people will turn to the national authorities they know and may increasingly see Europe, not as the answer, but as the problem — even the threat, writes John Lloyd

The attacks in Brussels fit into a pattern of a concerted campaign against institutions and activities that the West regards as central to its values and ideals, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

The president of Ivory Coast has said 14 civilians and six armed men were killed after attackers targeted beach-goers and three hotels in the historic resort town of Grand-Bassam.

The Syrian president has assured Russia’s Vladimir Putin of Damascus’ commitment to a Russia-US proposed truce, even as a spokesman for a Saudi-backed alliance of Syrian opposition and rebel factions expressed “major concerns” about the ceasefire, due to begin this week.

Security is to be stepped up in Burkina Faso after al-Qaeda militants in a vehicle from neighbouring Niger killed at least 28 people from 18 different countries in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners.

A UN plan to suspend Syria’s nearly five-year-old civil war calls for listing which militant groups may be fought despite an eventual ceasefire, one of the toughest issues vexing diplomats trying to end the conflict.

Suspected Islamist gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital yesterday, firing automatic weapons and seizing more than 100 guests and staff in a hostage-taking incident that left at least 27 people dead.

The Islamic State group is pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments, according to Iraqi and US intelligence officials.

The costs of failing to defeat Islamic State are rising to intolerable levels, both in lives tragically lost and dollars destroyed. A look at the numbers available suggests that the consequences of not acting outweigh the risks of a full-blown military boots-on-the-ground conflict.

It is the Western powers’ strategy of training, funding, and arming ‘moderate’ jihadists to fight against the ‘radicals’ that is now backfiring with deadly consequences, writes Brahma Chellaney

Islamic State’s crude interpretation of the Quran has seen it try to justify the actions of followers who have raped young girls and sold them into sex. Ken Phelan looks at the mindset that allows it

Investigators of the Russian plane crash in Egypt are “90% sure” the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation team told Reuters yesterday.

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