Overview: This report is the first publication from a continuing, open-source study of the coalition campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). With Australian blood and treasure committed to the efforts of the coalition, it is important for ASPI to provide research and constructive commentary on the campaign. The report examines...

The UN refugee agency annual statistics show that more than 51 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2013, the largest number since the end of World War II. Half of the world's refugees in 2013 were children. UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, which is based on data compiled by governments and non¬-governmental...

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad claims sarin is a primitive gas that can be made in a backyard, and could have been used by rebels in the suspected chemical attack in Damascus on August 2013.