Myths are created from the Empires for their terrorist and domination purposes

The Myth of the Caliphate The Political History of an Idea By Nick Danforth Western pundits and nostalgic Muslim thinkers alike have built up a narrative of the caliphate as an enduring institution, central to Islam and Islamic thought between the seventh and twentieth centuries. In fact, the caliphate is a political or religious idea whose relevance has waxed and waned according to circumstance.

From Copenhagen to Paris The Current State of Climate Negotiations By Richie Ahuja, Jonathan Camuzeaux, Thomas Sterner, and Gernot Wagner In Paris, countries’ commitments to emissions reduction and financing will be the key issues at the negotiating table. It suffices to say, the conference in Paris will not solve these issues, but it has great potential to provide a basis for increasing the ambitions of countries to move forward on both issues.

Argentina's Surprise Why Macri Won—And What It Means for the Region By Juan de Onis This weekend’s vanquishing of incumbent Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent a powerful signal of change to governments across the region, where populism and statist interventions have produced a decade of economic failure.

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Current History's December 2015 Issue Current History, the century-old international affairs journal, presents its December issue on the Middle East. The issue features essays by Marc Lynch on the Arab public sphere; Samer Abboud on Syria; Emad El-Din Shahin on Egypt; Tamirace Fakhoury on Lebanon; Kevan Harris on Iran; Valentine Moghadam on women’s rights; and Augustus Richard Norton on patterns behind the regional chaos. Upcoming issues: Global Trends (January); Latin America (February); Europe (March); South Asia (April); Africa (May). To subscribe or explore our archives, visit currenthistory.com. Or call 1-800-293-3755 in the US, or 856-931-6681 outside the US.

Proxy Wars Russia's Intervention in Syria and What Washington Should Do By Tom Cotton The attacks by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in Paris have forced a major rethinking of U.S. strategy in the Syrian conflict. A part of that rethinking must be U.S. President Barack Obama’s unwise decision to treat Russia as a legitimate partner in negotiations over Syria’s future.

ISIS and al Qaeda Race to the Bottom The Next Attacks By Clint Watts Al Qaeda and ISIS have launched a dangerous new era of terrorist competition, which will only lead to further waves of deadly violence.