Loon Wolves

In our first episode of 2025, Grant and I discuss the two unrelated New Years Day terror attacks by troubled individuals, and how “loon wolf” incidents like these persist even as the war on terror has succeeded in redirecting more organized jihadi movements’ focus toward the Middle East in the past 20 years. Noting that the New Orleans attack was similar to an earlier incident in Germany, we discuss the upcoming election there and Elon Musk’s public support for the AfD. We consider the political crisis in South Korea, and how the fallout could complicate things for US policy. Turning to Syria, we follow up on the fall of Assad and consider the complicated state of play between various regional actors including the Turks, the Kurds, and the new government in Damascus.