Generation Jihad – Details, episodes & analysis

Bill and David Daoud unpack the latest details from the current clash between Hezbollah and Israel.

Subbing for Bill and Behnam this week are Joe and David Daoud. They catch up on the latest headlines related to Hezbollah and its war of attrition against Israel. 

Bill and Joe discuss Israel’s retaliatory strike against Houthi targets in Yemen following the Iranian-backed terror group’s drone strike in Tel Aviv, the CENTCOM Commander’s surprisingly honest letter to the Secretary of Defense, and the irony of Pakistan designating Prime Minister Netanyahu as a terrorist (congrats to him on his new villa in Abbottabad).

Where in the world might the next state collapse into failure?

Hosts Bill and Caleb ultimately narrowed it down to two options: Somalia or Mali.

Shabaab in Somalia has aptly been dubbed "The Taliban of Africa," given how well-organized, well-armed and effective it is there as a jihadist group.

But Mali is actually the weaker state. To boot:

— The UN has undertaken an unprecedented withdrawal of its peacekeeping forces and will no longer have a presence in Mali by the end of this year;

— France, which was a major counterterrorism partner, has already completely withdrawn its troops from Mali;

— There is currently an Islamic Statelet in northern Mali, where the Islamic State controls the majority of an entire province;

— Al Qaeda controls huge swaths of territory in both northern and central Mali, and it increasingly threatens Bamako as it slowly encroaches on the capital;

— And also in the ring: Russia's Wagner Group.

Despite all of these excellent targets, the country's ruling military junta in Bamako is threatening open conflict with rebels in the north — a situation that could easily erupt into war.

Bill and Caleb agree: It's Mali on the brink.

Bill is joined by Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson to discuss their new book: Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco — from the Biden administration’s deeply flawed decision to withdraw from Afghanistan to its equally disastrous execution of the withdrawal, which was completed two years ago today.

Hosts Bill and Caleb (yes, Bill still thanks his co-host for joining even though it's his job, so what) are joined by Caleb's colleagues from the Bridgeway Foundation: Tara Candland (Vice President of Research and Analysis at Bridgeway) and Ryan O'Farrell (Senior Analyst at Bridgeway and Long War Journal contributor).

They discuss Bridgeway's June 2023 report co-authored by Caleb, Ryan, and Tara and published with George Washington University's Program on Extremism: Fatal Transaction: The Funding Behind the Islamic State's Central Africa Province.

Bill and Caleb are joined by expert James Barnett to make sense of the coup in Niger. They discuss the latest developments and implications.

James is a Lagos-based research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Bill is again joined by Generation Jihad regular Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown to discuss the latest report from the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (which Edmund previously led). Released on July 25, 2023, the Team's thirty-second report provides an update on al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Bill and Edmund unpack findings, discuss a few highlights, and also explain some points of disagreement.

Read the UN Report here.

Is Africa the epicenter of today's jihad? Bill and Caleb discuss, including in the context of Mali, the drawdown of African Union forces in Somalia, and one of Uganda's worst terrorist attacks in more than a decade.

Bill welcomes back to the show Generation Jihad regular Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown. Now a member of the Counter Extremism Project's advisory board, Edmund previously served as the UK's Ambassador to Yemen and later as the coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s Sanctions Monitoring Team.

Edmund's former team at the U.N. just released its latest report on Afghanistan which details (among other troubling issues) just how embedded al Qaeda is in Afghanistan's Taliban government.

Bill and Edmund dissect the report's findings.