Past Articles on Syria

Aaron Y. Zelin, “Why Is It So Difficult to Get Off a Terrorist List?,” Lawfare, July 3, 2022.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,” Policy Focus 175, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, May 9, 2022.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Second Islamic State Leader Killed in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Territory,” Policy Alert, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 3, 2022.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “From Global Jihad to Local Regime: HTS Builds Different Forms of Legitimacy,” Policy Watch 3519, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, August 6, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Affirmations of Support and Rituals of Jihadi Martyrdoms,” Global Network on Extremism and Technology, June 17, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Expanding Tribal Engagement,” Policy Watch 3499, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 11, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Russia Signals Biden with Attack on Syrian Jihadist Group,” Policy Alert, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 11, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The policy consequences of Arab state normalization with the Assad regime,” Middle East Institute, June 2, 2021 [With Oula Alrifai].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Protests in Daraa, Syria Undermine Assad’s Narrative of Victory,” Fikra Forum, April 2, 2021 [With Oula Alrifai].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Jihadi Movements 2021: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,” The Wilson Center, March 17, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Assad Is Giving Biden Every Reason to Prioritize Syria,” Policy Watch 3443, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 3, 2021 [With Oula Alrifai].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Syria at the Center of Power Competition and Counterterrorism,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Notes Number 95, February 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Tunisians of the Iraq Jihad and How That Set the Stage for the Syrian Jihad,” The ISIS Blog, January 29, 2021.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “My Beloved Brothers in God, This Is An Invitation: The Islamic State’s Dawa and Mosques Administration,” ISIS Files, George Washington University, December 2020.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Living Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain: The Case of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi,” Jihadica, September 10, 2020.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Jihadi-Backed Salvation Government and Covid-19 in Northwest Syria,” Istituto per gli studi di politica internazionale, May 15, 2020.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Syria’s Three Governments Confront the Coronavirus,” Policy Watch 3294, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, April 1, 2020 [With Oula Alrifai].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “A Year Since Baghuz, the Islamic State Is Neither Defeated nor Resurging (Yet),” Policy Watch 3287, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 25, 2020.
Aaron Y. Zelin “After Baghdadi: How the Islamic State Rebounds,” Policy Watch 3207, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, October 28, 2019 [With Katherine Bauer and Matthew Levitt].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Islamic State in Syria After the U.S. Withdrawal,” Policy Watch 3203, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, October 23, 2019.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Wilayat al-Hawl: ‘Remaining’ and Incubating the Next Islamic State Generation,” Policy Notes 70, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, October 2019.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Huras al-Din: The Overlooked al-Qaeda Group in Syria,” Policy Watch 3188, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 24, 2019.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Repatriating Western Jihadists: The Impact of U.S. Syria Policy,” Policy Watch 3086, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 27, 2019 [With Matthew Levitt].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Mission Unaccomplished: The Tweet That Upended Trump’s Counterterrorism and Iran Policies,” War on the Rocks, December 25, 2018 [With Matthew Levitt].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Revisiting the Islamic State’s 2011-2014 Reemergence: Lessons for the Future,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch 2903, December 18, 2017.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Jacob Olidort, “The Islamic State’s Views on Homosexuality,”Policy Watch 2630, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 14, 2016.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Jonathan Prohov, “How Western States Other than EU Countries Are Responding to Foreign Fighters? A Glance at USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,” in ed. Andrea de Guttry, Francesca Capone and Christophe Paulussen, Foreign Fighters Under International Law and Beyond, Springer Verlag [With Jonathan Prohov].
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Filtering the Islamic State’s Meta-Narratives: From Global to Local,”The Carter Center, February 2016.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Is ISIS Good at Governing?,” Brookings Institution, February 9, 2016.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Islamic State’s Territorial Methodology,” Policy Notes 29, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, January 2016.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Oula A. Alrifai, “The Islamic State in Southern Syria,” CTC Sentinel, Volume 8, Issue 11, November/December 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Targeting Europe’s Refugees Is Not the Answer,” Policy Watch 2524, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, November 16, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Picture or It Didn’t Happen: A Snapshot of the Islamic State’s Official Media Output,” Perspectives on Terrorism, Volume 9, Number 4, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Oula A. Alrifai, “Assad Plays America the Fool…Again,” The National Interest, March 21, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Foreign Fighter Motivations,” Statement submitted for the conference “Taking the Fight to ISIL: Operationalizing CT Lines of Effort Against the Islamic State Group,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 2, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Islamic State’s Model,” The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, January 28, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Islamic State: A Video Introduction,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, January 13, 2015.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Radicalization of Syria,” Per Concordiam, Volume 5 Issue 3, September 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State’s Driving Force,” BBC, July 30, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “ISIS Is Dead, Long Live the Islamic State,” Foreign Policy, June 30, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Syria: The Epicenter of Future Jihad,” Policy Watch 2278, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 30, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The War Between ISIS and al-Qaeda for Supremacy of the Global Jihadist Movement,” Research Notes 20, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Massacre Strategy,” Politico, June 17, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin “The ISIS Guide to Building an Islamic State,” The Atlantic, June 13, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Sunni Foreign Fighters in Syria: Background, Facilitating Factors, and Select Responses,” PfPC Background Paper No. 1, George Marshall Center’s Partnership for Peace Consortium, May 21, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Jonathan Prohov, “Proactive Measures—Countering the Returnee Threat,” Lawfare, May 18, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Saudi Foreign Fighter Presence in Syria,” CTC Sentinel, Volume 7 Issue 4, April 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Inside Baseball on Syrian Rebel Infighting,” War On the Rocks, February 7, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Al-Qaeda Disaffiliates with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham,” Policy Alert, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 4, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Phillip Smyth, “The Vocabulary of Sectarianism,” Foreign Policy‘s Middle East Channel, January 29, 2014.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Foreign Jihadists in Syria: Tracking Recruitment Networks,” Policy Watch 2186, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, December 19, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Up to 11,000 Foreign Fighters in Syria; Steep Rise Among Western Europeans,” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, December 17, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Rebels Consolidating Strength in Syria: The Islamic Front,” Policy Watch 2177, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, December 3, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, Patrick Clawson, Michael Eisenstadt, Matthew Levitt, David Schenker, Andrew J. Tabler, and Jeffrey White, “No Good Outcome: How Israel Could Be Drawn into the Syrian Conflict,” Policy Focus 131, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, November 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Barak Barfi, “Al Qaeda’s Syrian Strategy,” Foreign Policy, October 10, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “A Closer Look at ISIS (Part II),” Policy Watch 2138, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 11, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “A Closer Look at ISIS (Part I),” Policy Watch 2137, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 10, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, Jeffrey White, and Andrew J. Tabler, “Syria’s Military Opposition: How Effective, United, or Extremist?,” Policy Focus 128, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Matthew Levitt, “Hizb Allah’s Gambit in Syria,” CTC Sentinel, Volume 6 Issue 8, August 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Soner Cagaptay, “Turkey’s Jihadi Dilemma,” CNN Global Public Square, August 5, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Thomas Hegghammer, “How Syria’s Civil War Became a Holy Crusade,” Foreign Affairs, July 7, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Charles Lister, “The Crowning of the Syrian Islamic Front,” Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, June 24, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, Evan F. Kohlmann, and Laith al-Khouri, “Convoy of Martyrs in the Levant,” Jihadology and Flashpoint Intel, June 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Announcement of an Islamic State in Syria,” Policy Alert, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, April 9, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “European Foreign Fighters in Syria,” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, April 2, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Al-Qaeda in Iraq Enters the Syrian Conflict,” al-Wasat, March 11, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, “Uncharitable Organizations,” Foreign Policy, February 26, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Deciphering the Jihadist Presence in Syria: An Analysis of Martyrdom Notices,” CTC Sentinel, Volume 6 Issue 2, February 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Salafis Consolidate Power in Syria,” al-Wasat, February 6, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Syrian Islamic Front: A New Extremist Force,” The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch #2030, February 4, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Syrian Islamic Front’s Order of Battle,” al-Wasat, January 22, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, Andrew Tabler, and Jeff White, “Fallout from the Fall of Taftanaz,” The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch #2015, January 14, 2013.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Rally ‘Round the Jihadist,” Foreign Policy, December 11, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Rise of Al Qaeda in Syria,” Foreign Policy, December 6, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “The Evolution of the Jihadi Role in the Syrian Rebellion,” al-Monitor, October 18, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Distinguishing Between Foreign Fighters in Syria,” al-Wasat, September 24, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Assad’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy,” Pravda Slovakia, August 14, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Foreign Fighters Trickle into the Syrian Rebellion,” The Washington Institute for Near Policy, Policy Watch #1950, June 11, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Syria’s New Jihadis,” Foreign Policy, May 22, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin and Andrew Tabler, “Syrian Jihadis: Real and Exaggerated,” The Washington Institute for Near Policy, Policy Watch #1937, May 17, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Signs Beyond Western Eyes: Unpacking The Announcement of the al-Bara’ ibn Malik Martyrs Brigade,” al-Wasat, February 18, 2012.
Aaron Y. Zelin, “Jabhat al-Nusrah and Jihad in Syria,” al-Wasat, January 30, 2012.

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