Terrorism & Extremism

Hamza [bin Laden] is going back to the tried-and-true playbook his father pioneered. The Saudi royal family rules over the two holiest cities in Islam and enjoys tremendous legitimacy among Muslims. As Osama bin Laden discovered, the best way to attack them was thus to tie them to the United States, which is often seen as an enemy of Islam. Now that [Mohammad bin Salman] has cozied up to the Trump administration, Hamza’s doing his dad proud by trying to use the Saudi-U.S. relationship against him.

The main challenges [for China to develop a port in Pakistan], as I see them, are posed by the security risks of sustaining a large Chinese presence in Balochistan. China has demonstrated that it is highly sensitive to threats against Chinese citizens abroad, and even a small number of attacks or kidnappings could constrain the ambitions of China’s state owned enterprises operating in the area.