Interventionists Beware: A Century Of Failure In The Middle East Has No Quick Fix

Late in 2014, Australian counter-terrorism expert David Kilcullen attended a top-level conference in Abu Dhabi. Kilcullen has been a first-hand witness to much of the 21st century’s bloodiest carnage: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and in the long corridors of the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom in Washington. But even Kilcullen was surprised at the bewilderment gripping western and Middle Eastern leaders in the face of Islamic State.