Generation Jihad

Three years after Hezbollah entered the war against Israel, the Iranian-backed terrorist group has suffered devastating losses, including much of its senior leadership, command structure, and military infrastructure. But Hezbollah remains a formidable force, and its decision to join Hamas's war against Israel may prove to be one of the greatest strategic miscalculations in the group's history.FDD Senior Fellow David Daoud joins Generation Jihad host Bill Roggio to assess Hezbollah's ability to survive, rebuild, and avoid a strategic defeat despite Israel's significant tactical victories. They examine how Hezbollah exploits Lebanon's sectarian political system, relies on its Shiite support base, and leverages political allies and social networks to preserve its arsenal and buy time to regenerate.

Five years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban is stronger than ever, Al Qaeda continues to operate under its protection, and Pakistan is learning the hard way that supporting jihadists comes with a price. Bill Roggio is joined by retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and Long War Journal contributor Will Selber to assess the state of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate, the fractured and ineffective Afghan resistance, and the continued presence of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State's Khorasan Province. They also dismantle the persistent myth of a divided Taliban and examine why the jihadist regime faces little meaningful opposition to its rule.Across the border, Pakistan is confronting a resurgent Taliban insurgency fueled by the same jihadist networks its military and intelligence services spent decades nurturing. Roggio and Selber examine the growing threat from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP), the emergence of former Pakistani allies among its enemies, and Islamabad's increasingly futile reliance on airstrikes inside Afghanistan. The irony is difficult to ignore: Pakistan helped the Taliban defeat the United States and overthrow the Afghan government, only to find itself battling an insurgency operating from Taliban-controlled territory. The question is no longer whether Pakistan's jihadist strategy has backfired, but how much worse the consequences will become.

Was Operation Enduring Freedom—the US invasion of Afghanistan launched in October 2001 to kill or capture Al Qaeda’s leaders and oust the Taliban from power—a success or a failure? With the Taliban currently in control of Afghanistan and Al Qaeda operating training camps throughout the country, the answer seems obvious.Generation Jihad host Bill Roggio, an FDD senior fellow and the editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, talks with terrorism expert Thomas Joscelyn about the failures of Operation Enduring Freedom and how they cascaded into the terrorism threats we now face from Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other jihadist groups. Bill and Tom also discuss Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza, and reports that he may be alive and at the helm of Al Qaeda, as well as Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa’s refusal to answer a question about whether he renounced his oath of allegiance to Al Qaeda.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Washington, shaking hands and smiling as the People’s Liberation Army prepares for aggression in the Pacific. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to try to play the victim while continuing his brutal invasion of Ukraine. The regime in Iran is severely weakened but continues to menace commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. And North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is responding to American concessions and South Korean conciliation with more ballistic missile launches.Some Americans are familiar with the threats China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea pose individually. But how are these adversaries helping each other, and how does American action or inaction and strength or weakness in one region or against one adversary impact the others?To explore these questions and more on Generation Jihad, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) H.R. McMaster and Ryan Brobst join guest host Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). H.R. McMaster is a former US national security advisor to President Trump and serves as chair of the Advisory Board for CMPP, where Ryan Brobst is deputy director.

Hezbollah no longer owns every road in South Lebanon. In mixed villages that kept the group out and brought the Lebanese Army in, daily life looks almost normal—and Israel’s deployment in Lebanon bends around instead of through them. This could mark the start of Lebanon asserting its sovereignty in the south, spelling the beginning of the end of Hezbollah’s demise. But given Beirut’s inertia, it’s equally plausible Hezbollah will adapt and wait it out.Generation Jihad guest host David Daoud, an FDD senior fellow focused on Lebanon and Hezbollah, talks with Lina Khatib, an associate fellow in Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, about her July trip through that pocket, why the 2006 war never put the army in charge of the border, and whether Beirut can take Hezbollah’s weapons now that the group is weaker and Assad is gone.This episode digs into the Lebanese military’s limited seizure of weapons, the fear that a forced disarmament will spark another civil war, and the Shiite community that Hezbollah still dominates through sincere conviction, material benefits, and intimidation. Daoud and Khatib ask whether Hezbollah is limping toward the exit or adapting in the stasis, and whether talks with Israel are the start of a real peace—or just another pause before the next war.