Recent News

In this NPR interview, Col. Cassidy and others discuss Al-Qaeda’s “new life” in Africa.

In this article, Col. Cassidy gives a frank analysis of Pakistan’s role in the ongoing international security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Our 2012 Annual Report is available here.

The Center is working as part of an international team on developing metaphor analysis systems. More information is available after the cut.  Continue Reading →

In the run-up to Somalia’s presidential elections, Mesko visited Mogadishu, Marka, Afgooye and Ceel-Macan in southern Somalia. There, he met with and interviewed political leaders, traditional elders, former insurgents, AU soldiers, and businessmen. He also did some freelance reporting.

You can find his article in The East African here.

Col. Robert Cassidy, a Senior Fellow of the Center, gave an interview on his new book, War, Will and Warlords: Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2011. He was intereviewed by Government Book Talk’s blog editor Michele Bartram.

A transcript of parts I and II can be found here: (I) (II)

July 17, 2012

Farley Mesko presented on social networks and Somali piracy after a panel on identifying and using critical nodes to disrupt illicit networks. His talk focused specifically on the 2008 hijacking of the Saudi Arabian oil tanker Sirius Star and examined the networks of individuals and organizations connected financially and socially to the hijackers. He also looked at the ways in which licit and illicit networks are related.

You can see HD video of his presentation here.

The Google INFO Summit (Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition) was held July 16th – 18th. It was hosted by Google Ideas in conjunction with Tribeca Enterprises and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The full text of Dr. Robert Cassidy’s new book War, Will, and Warlords is available for download here