The Lawfare Podcast, Episode #90: The ISIL Threat---A National Counterterrorism Assessment
It’s already made the headlines, but earlier this week, Matthew Olsen, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, delivered a threat assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria at the Brookings Institution.
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It’s already made the headlines, but earlier this week, Matthew Olsen, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, delivered a threat assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria at the Brookings Institution. Olsen’s assessment stood out among the many others that have been released into the Washington echo chamber: it was alarming yet measured; it addressed the structural factors both propelling and limiting ISIL; and it outlined a series of steps the United States could take to limit the threat to the U.S. homeland and its interests abroad. Overall, Olsen paints a picture of a radical group with unnerving capabilities, but one that he says is certainly not “invincible.” Bruce Riedel, Director of the Intelligence Project and Senior Fellow at Brookings, introduced Olsen and moderated the discussion.
The full event video is below, and you can find a text version of Mr. Olsen's remarks here.
Cody Poplin is a student at Yale Law School. Prior to law school, Cody worked at the Brookings Institution and served as an editor of Lawfare. He graduated from the UNC-Chapel Hill in 2012 with degrees in Political Science & Peace, War, and Defense.
