The Isis Solution

The New York Times bestselling authors and former Special Operations veterans, Brandon Webb, Jack Murphy, and Peter Nealen details the dangers of ISIS and how America can stop the religious extremist threat at last "It's too soon to say what steps the United States will take against ISIS. I don't want to put the cart before the horse," Obama told reporters during a White House news briefing. "We don't have a strategy yet.""-former President Obama If we have been at war with terror for over a decade and still don't have solid strategies for dealing with radical terrorism, then what have we really been doing the last thirteen years? It's a good question to ask yourself, and at least the former President was telling the truth when he said we don't have a strategy for ISIS. As ISIS grows in strength with each successful battle, they will also set up the infrastructure of something resembling a functional state. They will become a self-funded organization making millions of dollars from oil revenue. Left unchecked, it is hard to say how powerful they could become. The dream of a pan-Islamic caliphate is most certainly beyond their reach, however, they could carve out a very large swath of the Middle East for their empire. If ISIS were to capture the first and second most holy sites of the Islamic faith, Mecca and Medina, the entire Middle East may very well implode. The ISIS Solution takes a look at the current geopolitical situation, organizational structure of ISIS, and provides new thinking and strategies for dealing with the Islamic State in the Middle East. Its authors and contributors have over fifty years of combined experience in the intelligence, analyst and Special Operations communities. Leadership and a new philosophical conversation of action is needed to eliminate violent terrorism. This book starts the conversation.

The three volume-set LNCS 12105, 12106, and 12107 constitute the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 39th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, EUROCRYPT 2020, which was due to be held in Zagreb, Croatia, in May 2020. The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 81 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 375 submissions. The papers are organized into the following topical sections: invited talk; best paper awards; obfuscation and functional encryption; symmetric cryptanalysis; randomness extraction; symmetric cryptography I; secret sharing; fault-attack security; succinct proofs; generic models; secure computation I; quantum I; foundations; isogeny-based cryptography; lattice-based cryptography; symmetric cryptography II; secure computation II; asymmetric cryptanalysis; verifiable delay functions; signatures; attribute-based encryption; side-channel security; non-interactive zero-knowledge; public-key encryption; zero-knowledge; quantum II.

With the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham still on the rampage and at the top of the U.S. national security agenda, we at Foreign Affairs have put together this companion eBook to Endgame in Iraq, in which our authors carefully examine the nature of the ISIS threat, the current state of the war against it, and the options for what to do next. Bringing together a collection of our best coverage of the subject from both print and Web, The ISIS Crisis offers an unparalleled range of authoritative analysis on everything from the group’s ideology, strategy, and internal characteristics; to its operations across the Middle East and elsewhere; to the difficult tradeoffs involved in trying to halt and reverse its advance. The collection concludes with a fascinating survey of expert opinion on whether Washington should step up its anti-ISIS military campaign, in which 73 of the world’s most knowledgeable observers offer their personal take on the question. We can’t promise that after reading all this, you’ll know exactly what to do. But we can promise that you’ll have the information you need to think about the question intelligently.

Chemistry for grades 9 to 12 is designed to aid in the review and practice of chemistry topics. Chemistry covers topics such as metrics and measurements, matter, atomic structure, bonds, compounds, chemical equations, molarity, and acids and bases. The book includes realistic diagrams and engaging activities to support practice in all areas of chemistry. The 100+ Series science books span grades 5 to 12. The activities in each book reinforce essential science skill practice in the areas of life science, physical science, and earth science. The books include engaging, grade-appropriate activities and clear thumbnail answer keys. Each book has 128 pages and 100 pages (or more) of reproducible content to help students review and reinforce essential skills in individual science topics. The series will be aligned to current science standards.

This timely special issue looks at a current pressing societal challenge that is truly global in its existence but very local in the way it plays out in various geographical, social and political contexts. Terrorism and extremism are undoubtedly among the biggest problems the world is facing today and is leaving in its wake a trail of death and destruction where the human and social costs are perhaps more significant than wars fought between countries on the world stage. These realities breed suspicion, hatred and feelings of revenge and invariably result in a spiral of violence that seemingly has no end. Not only is there a need to explore the various factors leading to violent youth radicalisation, it is clear that young people need to be considered not as victims ‘at risk’ but rather as responsible agents of positive change. This issue focuses on violent youth radicalisation in the context of Professor Gavrielides’ ‘The Youth Empowerment and Innovation Project (YEIP)’ which looked at the problem of violent youth radicalisation across seven European Countries. The project sought to propose a uniquely different way of combatting violent youth radicalisation by proposing an alternative to punitive means so often favoured by governments. That alternative proposed was to use Positive psychology and the Good Lives model to intervene with young people at risk of violent radicalisation focusing on positive identity and well-being on the premise that young people who had a positive view of themselves would be less likely to be drawn into violent radicalisation.

In the wake of its "Caliphate" declaration in 2014, the self-described Islamic State has been the focus of countless academic papers, government studies, media commentaries and documentaries. Despite all this attention, persistent myths continue to shape--and misdirect--public understanding and strategic policy decisions. A significant factor in this trend has been a strong disinclination to engage critically with Islamic State's speeches and writings--as if doing so reflects empathy with the movement's goals or, even more absurdly, may itself lead to radicalisation. Going beyond the descriptive and the sensationalist, this volume presents and analyses a series of milestone Islamic State primary source materials. Scholar-practitioners with field experience in confronting the movement explore and contextualise its approach to warfare, propaganda and governance, examining the factors behind its dramatic evolution from failed proto-state in 2010 to standard-bearer of global jihadism in 2014, to besieged insurgency in 2018. The ISIS Reader will help anyone--students and journalists, military personnel, civil servants and inquisitive observers--to better understand not only the evolution of Islamic State and the dynamics of asymmetric warfare, but the importance of primary sources in doing so.

Terror and War provides the reader with contemporary insights into military strategy, radicalisation and the challenges associated with countering the rising influence of terrorism. Twenty Essays is a cautionary and timely collection of works given the current intra-state and domestic tensions present within the world. The author has seen operational service on several occasions through Southern Asia, the Middle East and domestically, all of which centred on countering terrorism. This lived experience provides the reader with unique perspectives that complement the analysis of counter terrorism theory and military thinking. The outcome is an immersive and sobering reflection on the challenges facing policy makers and society more broadly.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public-Key Cryptography, PKC 2013, held in Nara, Japan, in February/March 2013. The 28 papers presented together with 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: homomorphic encryption, primitives, functional encryption/signatures, RSA, IBE and IPE, key exchange, signature schemes, encryption, and protocols.