The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States is an opportune time to reflect on the enduring consequences of that event and how the world has changed over the past decade, and speculate about what lies ahead. To mark the anniversary, Business Monitor Online last week published a special feature discussing… [Read more]

The death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in the early hours of May 2, 2011, has several noteworthy implications worldwide. The US can claim a very important symbolic victory in the ‘War on Terror’ (admittedly a phrase seldom used these days). Osama Bin Laden shot to international prominence in August 1998, when he was… [Read more]

Although the war in Libya has been dominating international media in recent weeks – with a brief interlude for the Japanese earthquake – events in Yemen – where President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime is on the brink of collapse – are arguably of greater geopolitical significance. Libya has dominated headlines because it is more visibly… [Read more]

The latest foiled terror attacks involving parcel bombs aboard civilian aircraft bound for the US are yet another reminder that Islamist groups are continuing to target the West using aeroplanes. However, rather than sending suicide attackers, as was the case with 9/11, the foiled ‘shoe bomber’ of December 2001, and the Christmas Day 2009 attempt… [Read more]

It is now nine years since the ‘9/11’ terror attacks, and in recent years, I have used this occasion to comment on the state of the ‘War on Terror’ – a phrase that is heard less often these days. This year, the anniversary has been marred by plans by a very obscure American pastor, Terry… [Read more]

There was a time when audio or video messages issued by Osama bin Laden would be front-page news, and we’d all wonder if a new al-Qaeda terror attack was imminent. However, in recent years, a widespread belief has developed that bin Laden is irrelevant, and that the real terror threat to the West comes from… [Read more]

The Christmas Day Detroit airliner plot has put Yemen under the terror spotlight after it emerged that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, lived in Yemen between August and December 2009, and after the Yemen-based Islamist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. Given the intense media attention on the… [Read more]