Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 28, 2015

Paul D. Shinkman, US News and World Report: 5 Things to Look For With ISIS in 2016

These key clues may indicate whether the Islamic State group can continue its reign of fear.

From the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris the first week of January to the San Bernardino shootings in December, the kind of self-inspired, small-scale brutality the Sunni Muslim Islamic State group has seeped into the cracks left by a Western security apparatus hardened around preventing a 9/11-style massive attack.

Now intelligence agencies scramble to adapt to a more nimble and unorthodox extremist movement that nobody could have predicted would have become so effective at sowing violence and fear from the Iraq-Syria border to the outskirts of Los Angeles. “2015 was a year of transition in the nature of the ISIL threat,” as one analyst observed, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 28, 2015

Is This Big 'Win' Over ISIS for Real? -- Nancy A. Youssef & Shane Harris, Daily Beast

Expelling ISIS from Ramadi: Why It Matters -- Tim Lister, CNN

ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on America's First Amendment -- Erik Eckholmd, NYT

Terrorists With Assault Weapons Rewrite the Script -- Noah Feldman, Bloomberg

U.S. sees bearable costs, key goals met for Russia in Syria so far -- Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s Phony War on Terror -- Brahma Chellaney, Project Syndicate

Washington Can’t Pull the Strings in Tehran’s Politics -- J. Matthew McInnis, National Interest

What's behind Turkey's renewed crackdown on Kurds? -- Insider Story/Al Jazeera

Last Refuge From Taliban for Afghans May Prove No Refuge at All -- Mujib Mashal and Taimoor Shah, NYT

The Unraveling of Jacob Zuma -- Erin Conway-Smith, Foreign Policy

China's New Anti-Terrorism Law -- Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat

Is There a Uighur Terrorist Build-Up Taking Place in Southeast Asia? -- Yenni Kwok, Time

Attacks by Boko Haram challenge Nigeria's claim of 'winning the war' -- Paula Rogo, CSM

Inside Egypt’s Blacked-Out War With ISIS-Affiliated Militants -- Jared Malsin, Time

The New Thorn In Russia's Side: Why Moscow Doesn't Want Montenegro Joining NATO -- Robbie Gramer, Foreign Affairs

The outcome of the Spanish election? Disarray -- Gwynee Dyer, Japan Times

A 2016 prediction: Conflicts between Ottawa and the premiers will get nasty -- Konrad Yakabuski, The Globe and Mail

Battered, bruised and jumpy — the whole world is on edge -- Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

2016 will be a year of living dangerously for the global economy -- Larry Elliott, The Guardian