The Editorial from November 1st, 2017, by Adrien Morin
By Adrien Morin
Today, The Foreign Analyst goes online after months spent brainstorming. We will keep uploading content on the website and provide our readers with new feature articles and blog posts every week. TFA is an online magazine providing analysis. We do not specialize in breaking news, or bullet point reports. Therefore, do not expect to hear from us every five minutes, but keep us in the corner of your mind, because the website will be frequently updated with our contributors’ analysis.
We kick off today with two feature articles. One on the fourth generation of foreign fighters, and one on France’s decision to use military armed forces for domestic counterterrorism. We also have online two blogs discussing China’s military expansion and the Islamic State’s activities in Afghanistan. Our upcoming articles will cover North Korea’s illicit trade routes, Myanmar’s religious conflict, European intelligence sharing, terrorism financing in Southeast Asia, returning foreign fighters, gun laws in the United States, Al Shabaab’s activities in Somalia, and many more. So stay tuned!
We have always imagined TFA as a platform where our readers could find original articles and different perspectives on international security. We do not have the pretention to reinvent everything, but we hope to contribute to the discussion on international security by bringing a certain vision of the field. Our own at first, and the one of our various contributors in the near future. We come from different places, have different backgrounds and speak different languages, but we all share a passion for security-related matters across the globe. We grew up in the post-Cold War era, where an increasingly multipolar world is bringing new security challenges at a fast pace, challenging preconceived ideas and established theories. We believe that studying historical security issues and analyzing emerging threats across countries and continents are crucial in understanding international security today.
TFA seeks to build a bridge between news reports, which you can find all over the internet and are essentially factual, and academic publications, which are not necessarily accessible for everyone. We believe that our readers are looking for more than factual knowledge, but we are also conscious that not everyone can afford to go through 40-page publications. Whether you are new to the field or have significant experience in international security, we hope that our articles will pique your curiosity and provide you with room for thoughts and criticism.
It is exciting to see this project become a reality and, at the same time, daunting to see how much remains to be done. I would like to thank my colleagues Zsófia Baumann and Inho Bae for joining me aboard this ship. TFA could have never happened without them. I would like to welcome you readers on board as well, as I hope that you will enjoy our publications as much as we like producing them.
Let’s see how far we can sail together!
