World-altering revolutions are born in danger and death, brotherhood and joy. This one must be stopped. By Scott Atran.

Official Washington is awash with tough talk about Russia and the need to punish President Putin for his role in Ukraine and Syria. But this bravado ignores Russia’s genuine national interests, its “red lines,” and the risk that “tough-guy-ism” can lead to nuclear war, as Alastair Crooke explains.

“Looking at the detailed Russian timeline of what happened,” says defense analyst Pierre Sprey, “I’d say the evidence looks pretty strong that the Turks were setting up an ambush.” By Andrew Cockburn.

Published just weeks before the Paris attacks, the French professor’s grim analysis has hit a nerve.

The probably deliberate shootdown of the Su-24 over Syria by Turkey has underlined that Russia in Syria is vulnerable, despite Russia's great power. Russia is for one hobbled by geography, and Russia is also vulnerable to relative local superiority of forces of opposing nations like Turkey...

When it starts raining stupid, you have to figure that pretty soon the stories about evil drugs will start pelting down. By Gary Brecher.

Before the Lebanese civil war, Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East. Today, Paris looks more and more like the Beirut of Western Europe, a city of incendiary ethnic tension, hostage-taking and suicide bombs... By Adam Shatz.

Analysts falsely believed Islamic State was too weak to carry out terror attacks abroad. But IS views terror as a means to an end -- and will launch attacks as long as they continue to serve its broader strategy. By Christoph Reuter.

For decades, aspiring bomb makers — including ISIS — have desperately tried to get their hands on a lethal substance called red mercury. There’s a reason that they never have. By C.J. Chivers.

Four former service members – including three sensor operators – issue plea to rethink current airstrike strategy that has ‘fueled feelings of hatred’ toward US. By Ed Pilkingto and Ewen MacAskill.

"What they don't like has an instinctive appeal to me..."

Arabic translator Alice Guthrie explains how Daesh, the new name for ISIS, undermines the terrorist group, and asks why anglophone media can't understand it. By Alice Guthrie.