- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
The Sydney siege and the first 100 days of the ISIL campaign
Posted By Graeme Dobell on December 18, 2014 @ 06:00
After 13 years, thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, we’re worse off today than before 9/11, with a stronger, more motivated, more dangerous enemy than ever.
From Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraq and Syria and as far as Palestine and Libya, the region is experiencing long-term structural instability and insecurity. It is in the throes of major geopolitical and power shifts, the likes of which not seen since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the British–French colonial realms nearly a century ago. The old correlation of forces in support of maintaining the status quo, especially following the Iranian Revolution more than 35 years ago, has been altering. A set of new alignments and realignments along multiple overlapping and contesting regional fault lines, including sectarian divisions and geopolitical rivalries at different levels, has come to redefine the region and possibly change its traditional political and territorial contours.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-sydney-siege-and-the-first-100-days-of-the-isil-campaign/
[1] siege in Sydney: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/sydney-siege-gunman-two-hostages-dead/5969162
[2] a report: https://www.aspi.org.au/publications/strike-from-the-air-the-first-100-days-of-the-campaign-against-isil
[3] interactive map of coalition airstrikes: http://first100days.aspi.org.au/
[4] video of the ASPI launch: http://youtu.be/D6nzRE0ULH8
[5] dying in Syria and Iraq as fast as they arrive, to be replaced by more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-jihadists-arriving-and-dying-at-same-rate-in-middle-east-asio-20141211-12584u.html
[6] Kilcullen proposition: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/the-wests-failed-counterterrorism-strategy-requires-a-complete-rethink/story-e6frg6zo-1227108858408
[7] Saikal thought: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-middle-east-a-zone-of-frenemies-20141214-1267os.html
[8] Graeme Dobell: https://www.aspi.org.au/about-aspi/aspi-staff/fellows/graeme-dobell