From IHE, Scott McLemee reviews Islamic State: Rewriting History by Michael Griffin and The Rise of Islamic State: Isis and the New Sunni Revolution by Patrick Cockburn. In rise of ISIS, no single missed key but many strands of blame. Brian Michael Jenkins on why the Paris terrorists couldn’t be stopped: French authorities have too many suspects to track and too many targets to protect. Jytte Klausen on Europe’s real border problem: Openness isn’t the issue. Olivier Roy on how the attacks in Paris reveal the strategic limits of ISIS. Fred Kaplan on how to defeat the terrorist group. Kevin Drum on how we need to re-learn the lessons of the Iraq war. ISIS will become more deadly before it dies: When terrorists lose ground, they typically lash out with greater violence. Nicolas Henin: “I was held hostage by Isis. They fear our unity more than our airstrikes”. Don’t give ISIS what it wants: Ensure that cooler heads prevail after an attack, resist the urge for retribution, and other ways to make sure the terrorists don’t win (and more).
Eric D. Gould and Esteban F. Klor (HUJI): The Long-run Effect of 9/11: Terrorism, Backlash, and the Assimilation of Muslim Immigrants in the West. From Vox, German Lopez on how a refugee gets to America, explained by an actual refugee; Indiana was supposed to welcome a Syrian family this week — it sent them to Connecticut instead; and Javier Zarracina on how these charts put the US response to Syrian refugees in context: It’s pitifully small. Evangelical Christians, as well as Christians more broadly, are a core group in the Republican electoral base and are among the most passionate advocates for aiding refugees. Can terrorists really infiltrate the Syrian refugee program? Despite the current uproar, the U.S. has been resettling people fleeing war-torn countries for decades without trouble.
