World Politics Review

The significance of the ethnicity of the two Boston Marathon bombers is still unclear, as are the reasons for their transformation into Islamist terrorists, but the latest evidence seems to suggest that the elder Tsarnaev brother’s trip last year to the North Caucasus played a key role. Many of the family’s relatives still live in the region, which has been a hotbed of militant radicalism for at least a century.

Now nearing the midpoint of his first full term in office, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will count on the advantages of incumbency and party dominance in seeking another term when Nigeria votes again in 2015. Yet insecurity, corruption and stalled policy implementation have provoked broad criticism, and the remainder of his term is likely to be characterized by high levels of political tension.

The broadest lessons of the Iraq War suggest the appropriate way for the United States to deal with hostile dictators. Iraq has already shaped U.S. policy toward Libya and Syria and continues to affect its approach to Iran and North Korea. Some day, Iraq may influence U.S. strategy toward other authoritarian regimes. In this sense, the Iraq War has already become part of America’s foreign policy playbook.

Governments are beginning to acknowledge the symbiotic nature of terrorism and organized crime, and to recognize that today’s security challenges are too interconnected, transnational and vast for states to confront one at a time. Institutional integration will be needed to combat these threats, and while change will not come easily, there are signs that key stakeholders are moving in the right direction.

While China expressed its opposition to North Korea’s nuclear test, Beijing also stated its desire to see an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks seeking a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Despite their irritation with the North Korean regime, most Chinese officials appear more concerned about the potential collapse of the North Korean state than about its pursuit of nuclear and missile programs.

While it is tempting to view Europe’s newest anti-Muslim groups as isolated and largely insignificant, their recent emergence reflects how the radical right in Europe has spawned a new generation of activists whose grievances are complicated and difficult to address. Recent research challenges assumptions about who makes up these groups, which may have more political staying power than is commonly thought.

The suffering and triumph of the Arab Spring remain unfinished, not only for the transitions in Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, but for other Arab states as well, particularly the monarchies. The Arab monarchs are still feeling the pressure that swept away their nonroyal counterparts. American national security strategy weathered the first wave of the Arab Spring, but it might not be so lucky in the next one.

A recent report by the Open Society Justice Initiative provides new insights into the “extraordinary rendition” program the United States operated after 9/11, revealing just how widely the program swept and which countries participated. The report raises important questions about both accountability for past human rights abuses and the future of U.S. counterterrorism policy under the Obama administration.