Jim Walsh

Security studies program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Is Trump’s Meeting With Kim Jong Un A Good Idea?

People watch a TV screen showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, left, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 9, 2018. After months of trading insults and threats of nuclear annihilation, Trump agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un by the end of May to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, South Korean and U.S. officials said Thursday. No sitting American president has ever met with a North Korea leader. The signs read: " Kim Jong Un understands that the routine joint military exercises between the South Korean and the United States must continue." (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

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Commentary

Donald Trump

News

Opinion

Politics

When it comes to terrorism, the media have done a poor job of providing context and have frequently rushed to judgment, invoking the "Islamic terrorism" tag when it was premature to do so.

...if we are serious about preventing the next Orlando, then we may have to give equal and separate attention to risk factors that have nothing to do with 'Islamic terrorism.'

Your Beliefs About Terrorism And Islam Are A Hot Mess Of Myth And Illogic

This poster, distributed by an Islamic state militant supporter to advertise a new propaganda video, shows Omar Mateen who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with 'Islamic State' blazoned behind him. It took just a few hours for the Islamic State group’s opportunistic propaganda machine to take responsibility for the latest bloodshed in Florida, with messages claiming the attacker as its own. It may take the group longer to sort through the implications of a killer whose backstory of conflicted sexuality and heavy drinking is at odds with a carefully crafted public image of its fighters. Arabic reads: “The large bill. America is paying the price.” (Militant Media Arm via AP)

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Security

Orlando Nightclub Shootings

Listen to Jim Walsh on WBUR's Morning Edition

Bostonians understand what it’s like to watch the TV screen in disbelief, to desperately try to find a loved one.

It will be a long and painful road back, but they still run something called the Boston Marathon here. And in Paris, the Eiffel Tower will light the night once again... 

A knitted French flag with a heart design in the center rests on the sidewalk next to candles outside the French Consulate in Boston, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. (Steven Senne/AP)

To Paris, With Love: A Boston Perspective On Coming Back From Terror

A makeshift memorial for those killed or wounded in the Friday attacks in Paris, as seen at a vigil Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Boston, held in sympathy for the people of Paris. The memorial rests at the foot of a statue of French Revolutionary War military officer Marquis de Lafayette on the Boston Common. (Steven Senne/AP)

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Life

Boston Marathon Bombings

...this is one of the most detailed nonproliferation or arms control agreements ever negotiated. President George W. Bush’s Moscow Treaty with Putin was a mere two pages long.

Historic Iranian Nuclear Deal Relies On ‘Verification,’ Not Trust

...an agreement that greatly advances nonproliferation and U.S. national security does not have to be perfect. If perfect were the standard, we would have no Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Cautious Optimism: An Insider Sizes Up The Iran Nuclear Deal

Iranians celebrate following a landmark nuclear deal in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 14, 2015. After long, fractious negotiations, world powers and Iran struck an historic deal Tuesday to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions, an agreement aimed at averting the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and another U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

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Middle East

policy

ISIS is not a state. It is a sub-national organization. As such, it lacks the resources and power that come with being a sovereign government.

ISIS: Assessing The Threat And What The U.S. Should Do

What is happening in the Middle East is first and foremost a function of the governments in the Middle East and their policies. If we want to stop ISIS and achieve regional stability, then we have to start there.

Brutality Is Not Capability: A Guide To Understanding ISIS

Jim Walsh: "ISIS is a violent, non-state actor and like any group, it has strengths and weaknesses. To assess the threat and formulate a strategy to defeat it, it would helpful to be clear about those strengths and weakness are." Pictured: This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014,  shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked ISIS marching in Raqqa, Syria. (Militant Website via AP)

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Civilian casualties [in Gaza] are mounting, and Israeli analysts are talking about 'mowing the grass' to explain their strategy.

 Cutting down civilians, like the children playing on that Gaza beach, is not like cutting blades of grass. To compare the two is dehumanizing.

'Mowing The Grass' In Gaza: A War In The Mideast Every Four Years?

Jim Walsh: "A metaphor can be a dangerous thing. It can even kill." Pictured: Smoke from an Israeli strike rises over Gaza City, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Hamas militants stuck to their demand for the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade in the face of U.S. efforts to reach a cease-fire. (Hatem Moussa/AP)

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When I give a pubic talk or an interview on terrorism, and I describe what happened in Boston to give it a personal context, I start to get emotional.

When Your Work Suddenly Comes Home

Terrorism authority Jim Walsh on what it’s like when your professional expertise infiltrates your personal space. In this Friday, April 19, 2013 Massachusetts State Police photo, law enforcement officials converge on a covered boat where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is hiding moments before his capture in Watertown, Mass. (Sean Murphy/AP)

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2014 Boston Marathon

There is no doubt that Russia is the wrongdoer in this story, but acting on justified moral offense rather than clear eyed strategic interest is more likely to increase the price we all pay.

With any luck, this will blow over the same way the 2008 war in Georgia did, that is, without irreparable harm to the U.S.-Russian relationship.

The Ukrainian Paradox

Members of the Crimean pro-Russian self-defense forces climb up to take down a Ukrainian flag, right, and a Ukrainian navy flag, left, at the Ukrainian navy headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, Wednesday, March 19, 2014. In center is a Russian flag. (Andrew Lubimov/AP)

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It should cause us to stop in the same way we wish people had done when the Nazis took power, on the eve of Rwandan genocide, or as Saddam Hussein used poison gas against his own citizens.

Peace activists (from left) Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed were sentenced for a break-in at a Tennessee nuclear weapons complex. (Knoxville News Sentinel/AP)

Crimes Against Humanity: Why We Must Never Become Numb To The Phrase

North Korean soldiers gather to pay their respects at the base of statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, the eve of the second anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il. (David Guttenfelder/AP)