Craig Whiteside
@CraigAWhiteside
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teach for the @NavalWarCollege resident program @NPS_Monterey ; co-author of The ISIS Reader (Hurst/Oxford 2020); dad, scout, sports fan, and Geronimo
Monterey, CA
Joined April 2009
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Out today: "State Accompli: The Political Consolidation of the Islamic State Prior to the Caliphate" coauthored with the amazing
@neas_khan
in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (50 free copies here)
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normally don’t amplify garbage takes (oxygen/fires, etc.) but unaware of any infantry soldiers who balked at getting in my daughter’s Blackhawk during the many night air assaults on the deployment to E. Europe last year.
Candace Owens: “I would be terrified if I got onto a plane and I saw a woman flying the plane.”
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I saw this in the football complex and loved it. There are a lot of slogans out there. But this resonates with me deeply as a former military officer and now teacher and scout leader
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Great news: our article (w/Ian Rice,
@DanieleRaineri
) on militant use of special operations is out: “Black Ops: Islamic State and Innovation in Irregular Warfare,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism
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@warmatters
our high school shifted its virtual day as the principal admitted in an email that the teenagers were reverting to their normal sleep patterns. I thought that was perceptive and thoughtful.
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"Academic freedom is not an open invitation to be a jerk ... but if all it means is that professors keep their jobs only at the sufferance of students, then it means nothing at all,”
@RadioFreeTom
writes in
@TheAtlantic
Daily newsletter.
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Lost my Iraq pen pal two weeks ago. USMC CPT (Ret.) Thomas Fox, Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart, Eagle Scout, college football player, fellow Red Sox fan, fellow Catholic, VFW member, father. He reminded me once that he knew what it was like.
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You've read about the Awakening (Sahwa) from the American perspective, and maybe slightly from the tribal perspective. Read about it from the Islamic State of Iraq/ISIS/IS perspective for the first time. I'll bet it changes your mind about a few things.
Latest research paper by Associate Fellow
@CraigAWhiteside
on the Islamic State's strategy to defeat the Sunni Awakening in Iraq
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pretty excited to announce this will soon be out... with a webinar rollout later this month.
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This was moving. Thankful we have public servants who serve us all so faithfully, regardless of your politics. 50 years.
JUST IN: Pres. Obama surprises an emotional VP Biden with nation's highest civilian honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
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"Cyber competition is here and it is getting worse, threatening to undermine democracies, upend the international order, and erode American power," argues
@AmyZegart
. "It’s time our cyber strategy got with the program."
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today I am remembering Specialist Matthew Bolar, Apache 1-501 Parachute Infantry, 24, killed on May 3, 2007 in the belts south of Baghdad near Iskandariyah on patrol to help an Iraqi soldier in need. That was a tough day, and tough week for the Geronimos, but often remember Matt.
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New article out today. Thread on the background and some details that were left out of this article due to the normal limitations, and a lack of imagination on my part
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proud to have served my fellow citizens wherever they wanted me to go and the friends I met along the way. grateful in fact.
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Article out today: "Accidental ethnographers: the Islamic State’s tribal engagement experiment" in Small Wars and Insurgencies
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I was so excited for this new partnership and
@hxhassan
’s vision because it would give us more than Husham sound bites, but amazing in-depth analysis on Islamic State. This is a tremendous personal loss for those that knew him. I asked him for help often and he was so generous.
It is with great sadness and shock that we announce the loss of our good friend and colleague Dr. Husham Al-Hashimi. Dr. Al-Hashimi dedicated his career to advocating for a peaceful and prosperous Iraq. He will be sorely missed.
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finally finished this, great read: "Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict."
@OrenKessler
really brings the characters to the forefront of this history
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one of my roommates at West Point was one of these little guys (not in photo) in the airlift. He last saw his parents on a beach in Vietnam in 1975.
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Final push the next two months on my project with
@charliewinter
and
@haroro_ingram
: The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts from the Islamic State Movement, Hurst Publishers out this summer
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Thinking of many this holiday but especially our own Geronimo medic Mikey, lost running to help a wounded comrade; pics sent by my brother’s colleague inspired by this article to remember a special guy:
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current read. So far it’s pretty amazing. Our general focus on the group’s violent proclivities misses its relentless focus on building highly functioning organizations that execute centralized insurgencies in an expanding list of theaters.
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I am married 25 years today to an amazing woman who has had an outsized impact in my life and the life of our four children. The things we accomplish daily can all trace back to her - our center, our rock.
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took almost all of 2019 (and many years before this) for this highlight: mentoring a new Eagle Scout. My own kid made Eagle this year and this feels better.
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Islamic State in West Africa Now Dominates in Northeast Nigeria | Council on Foreign Relations
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just had the same experience. said a prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe for us all, may we find our way out of this.
Just coming from Sunday mass. The Gospel and homily today focused on the story of the Good Samaritan. Do you think Trump or anyone in his administration is aware that this would be happening on this particular Sunday?
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that this guy was acting SECDEF tells you how bad a place we were once in…and could be once again. We’re “creating” the current great power competition (remind me when we started using that phrase?)
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proud Washington State Cougar most days, but super proud of these guys this week: “Bow Down” to the Huskies
Over 1300
#SARSCoV2
#CoronavirusUSA
#HCoV19
tests completed 3/11 by
@UWVirology
@UWMedicine
, about 9% positive. Many tests were for patients in other parts of the US lacking access to testing. We have capacity for more. Order info here .
#WhereAreTheTests
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I would argue instead that using "terrorists" is the misleading term here. It is quite the war by every definition. A close second is "classic war," whatever that is. I can get behind the sentiment of the tweet at least. There is no permanent defeat, no victory.
The apparent ISIS attack in Syria a costly reminder that there is no such thing as victory in any traditional sense vs terrorists. This is one reason why “war” is not a good term in this context as classic wars have an end but struggles vs terrorists are unavoidably open ended.
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who would have ever guessed that out next conflict (as opposed to our current one with IS and AQ) would involve a non-state actor after the embrace of great power competition and large scale contingency operations?
US 5th fleet commander (Middle East) Vice Adm. Brad Cooper says in new statement on Iran seizing a commercial ship: "Iran's actions are contrary to international law and threaten maritime security and stability."
Comes as reports suggest US/UK strike in Yemen coming tonight
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Doing some grading and a lot of my students are bringing in
@intelwire
J.M. Berger's "Extremism" into their analysis and I am simultaneously remorseful that it is an "external source" (and not our text) and impressed with how smart they are
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Proud to see my paper "Nine Bullets for the Traitors..." highlighted in the
@ICCT_TheHague
"Year in Review." It is the story of the Islamic State's campaign to defeat the Sunni Awakening, with over 40 primary sources:
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Excited to see this in the mail today, new book out on IS-KP by
@AmiraJadoon
and
@mines_andrew
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“They’re like a cancer,” he said. “You can never declare them dead.”
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just arrived for the soon to be officer (the fifth Lieutenant Whiteside, US Army, from this family) - A Woman’s Place by
@Joana_Cook
from
@HurstPublishers
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Serious guy introduced me today at the elementary school veteran’s day ceremony (my first ever). It was quite an honor. His speech: “My name is Max and I come from a family of veterans: my mom and dad, both grandfathers, & 2 uncles. My sister is a cadet at
@USC
. This is my dad.
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watched
#theoutpost
last weekend and I've got to say as a fan of
@jaketapper
's book the director
@RodLurie
did a fantastic job. It is gripping and intense, and leaves you with a lot to think about. Just a bunch of folks doing their job as best they can in difficult circumstances.
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We are hiring here at NWC at Monterey (satellite campus). Job link not up yet, but come work with us in an in-residence PME job. The job announcement is milspeak mumbojumbo, but the previous professor was a civilian with a PhD in history teaching our core course Strategy and War.
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celebrating a last day in beautiful Copenhagen with a noon beer in the Kongen Nytorv Christmas 🎄 market with the family. Will miss our new friends at the Royal Danish Defense College
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celebrating
#CincoAtHome
by feeding the gang my mother’s enchilada recipe con arroz y frijoles (in loving memory).
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excited to read this maturation of the leadership decapitation literature to a discussion of leadership succession by
@tricbacon
and
@ProfLizGrimm
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@jimgolby
my son's elementary teacher went from asking me if computers had cameras in them to being a google hangouts rock star, scheduling curb side visits for tech challenged students, online parent conferences, birthday parades, a book club, and homework delivery and I'm in amazement.
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My
@NavalWarCollege
colleagues and I wrote a reflection on War, Terror, and the management of intractable problems: "The Python Problem" for
@WarOnTheRocks
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end of fiscal year work book buy:
@mike_giglio
@ColinPClarke
@dbyman
@Charles_Lister
@BarakMendelsohn
@hxhassan
@michaeldweiss
some old, some new
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Feel like we’ve had this discussion before
ISIS Is Using Internet Propaganda to Maintain a 'Virtual Caliphate,' UN Report Says
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the defeated vs. "not defeated" stuff is tiresome already. You can be defeated and still be on the battlefield. This isn't Berlin 1945 and it is irregular warfare not solely conventional, so adjust. Using variety of metrics would be better. Using US bombing data problematic.
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Anyone really surprised he wasn’t found in the one place he probably never was (if he has a brain, and guessing he does after 14 years of being unfindable).
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The Syria policy reversal threatens to undo five years’ worth of fighting against ISIS and will severely damage American credibility and reliability, General Joseph Votel and
@LizyDent
write:
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Happy to release
@haroro_ingram
@charliewinter
and my analysis of the Islamic State’s global insurgency paper as part of
#ICCT10
, building on our work in the ISIS Reader:
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enjoying our second summer here at Naval Postgraduate School with my PME colleagues
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We are hiring here at
@NavalWarCollege
at
@NPS_Monterey
for a National Security Affairs professor, all ranks, tenure track or practitioner. Come work with us in Monterey! We teach national security decision making to the very best. Questions - email Bob (see below) or hit me up.
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This was an incredible read that I still have trouble getting my head around. Any thoughts appreciated.
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shortest tenure of any movement leader and killed before he made a public speech.
The leader of Islamic State was killed during a U.S. military operation in Syria, President Biden said
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got to do the American version of this once and I've never been so humbled in my life. They get you with the "how many jumps do you have sonny," then tell you they only have four: Sicily, Normandy, Holland... etc. "Ok pops, ya got me. Now tell me your stories!" And boy do they.
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Fascinating Poll results: A striking positive shift in Sunni opinion in Iraq is underway. Here's what it means.
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once more for the weekend crowd: "Generation Killed: The Challenges of Routinizing Global Jihad" compares the leadership succession plans of AQ to those of Islamic State
@WarOnTheRocks
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come see our all-star panel
@isanet
Montreal on Friday put together by the amazing
@aysed_9
and featuring
@AmarAmarasingam
@_MAArgentino
@DevorahMargolin
@Joana_Cook
@jamesfitz2
@YVeilleuxLepage
@Alex_Phelan
Carol's GSU crew (Part 1) - we have more Friday afternoon
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We talked this in class today. Often asked why we teach politics/policy/strategy to mid level officers and this is why. What happens at the tactical level by officers we teach can derail strategy and policy in a NY minute if they are ignorant of the ramifications of their acts
CNN Political & Foreign Policy Analyst Barak Ravid joins Anderson to analyze what went wrong when an Israeli attack in Gaza killed seven aid workers, including foreign nationals, from Chef José Andrés non-profit, World Central Kitchen.
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"The withdrawal from Afghanistan has stung the egos of the US elite. But Afghanistan had long ceased to be a decisive battlefield." The New Age of American Power by
@adam_tooze
in
@NewStatesman
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Our student CENTCOM team proposed that one faulty planning assumption by the command might be that “we are the partner of choice.”
Saudi Arabia Invites China President to Visit Kingdom Amid Strained U.S. Relations
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for those of you having a tough day, my lab Wrangell.
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We are hiring for 2!! national security affairs professors for
@NWC
at
@NPS_Monterey
, come work with us! Links aren't up yet but its open and I found an ad for it here (closes 12/3):
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this by
@Hegghammer
sucks you right in. Also I just finished the bio of Qawuqji (The Commander) and he made a brief appearance in Palestine in Chapter 1. The level of detail is pretty thick.
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Me: JM, are you going to Swansea
#TASMConf
after this?
@intelwire
: I’m the keynote speaker
Me: so.... you’re kind of a big deal?
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U.S. Revives Secret Program to Sabotage Iranian Missiles and Rockets
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The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement is now available at
@OUPAcademic
's Oxford Scholarship Online at many college/university libraries (like mine) for students to use to access primary sources:
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guy should know the difference between terrorism and insurgency by now
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Would like to call attention to this excellent new ISIS analysis out in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism that looks closely at an important Arabic language media source (al-Naba) that has been neglected (compared to Dabiq/Rumiyah) by
@aysed_9
and partners
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condensed COVID 3x graduation (grad school, undergraduate, high school) two birthdays and one commissioning
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doing a bit of walking this week on the AT with an old army friend and a new one thru hiking the whole thing. Good times.
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if your argument is that COIN worked but then the politics went south you missed the point of Galula and the others. Everyone picking on the Afghanistan points but the Iraq ones more egregious. Our defeat of the early Islamic State was clearly a military one and quite exaggerated
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Generation Jihad Ep. 8 – The Islamic State's Foundational Texts | FDD's Long War Journal
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Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an important day for Mexican Catholics and many Americans. My dearly departed mother once made the pilgrimage to Our Lady’s shrine and I think of her often on this day.
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Pentagon worries Capt. Crozier’s concern for his sailors may be contagious
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I'm on slide 12 of 45 on my telework "training" and it's worse than I could have imagined.
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Update: scheduled for Wednesday, 28 April, 10 AM EDT, with web link to be published this week. Happy to join
@KatieZimmerman
and Terry Wolff, former Deputy Counter ISIL envoy, as co-panelists for the
@gwupoe
event. Thanks to
@DevorahMargolin
for organizing it all.
pretty excited to announce this will soon be out... with a webinar rollout later this month.
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Fantastic new article by my NWC at NPS colleague Sam Helfont: “The Gulf War’s Afterlife: Dilemmas, Missed Opportunities, and the Post-Cold War Order Undone” in
@TXNatSecReview
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I study this stuff and I can't make heads or tails of this encounter.
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"When the United States entered World War II, nearly all its admirals were Naval War College graduates. Now, less than a quarter of them are because the Navy hasn't stressed education as much, Kroger said." - Navy to Overhaul Its Education System
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Son of former Islamic State of Iraq leader Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (2006-10) killed near al-Qaim by Iraqi forces
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German spy chief warns of Islamic State's strength
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Excited to contribute to a discussion w/amazing colleagues (
@ginaligon
@haroro_ingram
@colebunzel
@Dr_DMilton
) on new Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim, Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 9:00 AM ET hosted by our friends at
@CTCWP
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New article out in
@RUSI_org
"Lying to Win: The Islamic State Media Department’s Role in Deception Efforts"
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Quick unplanned dash into San Francisco to grab the oldest whose first real day of work ever was today. As the city is shutting down it was also her last for a while (teleworking). What nobody told me was that parenting really never ends.
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due to a series of unfortunate events, including making the Jeep topless the day before lightening storms started three nearby fires, I drove to work in an ash tray and immediately regretted another poor decision.
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It’s like people are incapable for even a day of saying that China is responsible for its own policies. Whatever they learned from the GWOT, concentration camps to brainwash their own loyal citizens ain’t it.
The Chinese wanted to “emulate” our “war on terror”. This is our legacy: steering legitimate fight against al-Qaeda post 9/11 into a never ending war that saw everything in the Muslim world through the CT prism. In the process providing an excuse to authoritarian regimes.
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a Monterey sunrise after a run earlier this week - from under a California oak
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New post at The ISIS Reader: guest spot by the talented
@aysed_9
who summarizes her recent journal article for us on the logic behind the caliphate’s coinage and its imagined statehood
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