As Syria’s war enters its fifth year, its refugees are fading deeper into the background. At a conference in Kuwait last week, countries promised more aid, but donor fatigue has left humanitarian organizations unable to help people like Deen, and that’s creating an opportunity for the Islamist militants who play a growing role in the conflict. This month, Islamic State and and al-Nusra Front militants took over much of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

It is also perhaps a demonstration of Obama’s very challenging efforts to establish an “equilibrium” between Shia and Sunni forces throughout the Middle East region, especially in the Gulf. Obama explicitly made such equilibrium a strategic aim in the region in his famous interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick 14 months ago.

With a massive invasion by U.S. ground troops ruled out — for now — the debate in Washington over what to do about Islamic State militants has shifted into the realm of diplomacy and “soft power.”

The United States is conducting a “soft power” campaign – an effort to deter potential IS recruits and supporters of the militant group. Projects are being aimed at the young, who have joined IS in alarming numbers from around the world.

No efforts are more notable than the Kingdom of Morocco, which has erected a formidable “soft-power” strategy against Islamic radicalism over the past decade. That strategy is grounded in religious legitimacy.

Attended by roughly 150 students and faculty and sponsored by the Yale Political Union, Murphy instead called for a “winning strategy” that puts more weight on non-military intervention and homeland security. 

Europe will be "in deep trouble" if it continues to rely only on soft power, given the threats it now faces from the east and south, according to the Belgian commander of the five-nation Eurocorps headquarters.

Islamic State is using social media and the promise of adventure to lure British Muslim girls to join its cause, an anti-extremism think tank said on Monday, as police attempt to trace three London schoolgirls believed to be heading to Syria.