A double offering from Clint Watts this week.

First a well reviewed article 'The Microsoft of Terrorism: Al Qaeda Loses Touch' in Foreign Affairs, alas behind a free registration "wall". So here is his opening paragraph:
If al Qaeda were a corporation today, it would be roughly equivalent to Microsoft: A big name but an aging brand, one now strikingly out of touch with the 18–35-year-old-demographic. The group made its way back into the headlines this past January, after its affiliate—al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP—took credit for a deadly attack on the Paris offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. But the claim of responsibility came a week after the fact, and lacked the sort of insider accounts or video footage that typically accompany such announcements, leading some to conclude that al Qaeda may not have known about the attackers’ intentions.
Link:http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articl...t-of-terrorism

Second, a shorter piece 'Countering ISIL’s Ideology: Keep It Limited, Focused, and in Tune with Lessons Learned' for a WINEP conference this week Taking the Fight to IS. A counter-ideological programme is presented after dissecting why CVE / PVE efforts have failed:https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/...nt20150202.pdf