Dr. Charles G. "Chuck" Cogan, an International Security Program associate since 2006, died peacefully in his sleep on December 14, 2017 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a frequent participant over the years in ISP seminars and other Center events, contributing his insights and anecdotes from his long career as a Central Intelligence Agency officer and his subsequent career as a historian.

"France is one of the most heavily policed countries in the world, for keeping order in a disorderly nation, apt—with its revolutionary tradition—to take to the streets at the drop of a hat, to accomplish political ends."

This book is a collection of the author's blogposts from 2008–2013, almost all of them from the Huffington Post and reposted on the website of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs by the International Security Program. Most of them deal with the author's particular area of expertise, from Morocco to Bangladesh, but also with Europe and transatlantic issues. A few are film reviews, and others deal with the U.S. Presidency and the Congress.

"The French are the most forward-leaning of Europe's militaries....Former President Nicolas Sarkozy led the charge to get rid of Gaddafi. His successor, François Hollande, intervened rapidly and effectively to save some 6,000 expatriates, mostly French, from being overrun by Islamist fanatics in Bamako, Mali. Earlier this fall, the French were all revved up to join in an air attack on Syria...."

"The Army states that it is going to arrange for new elections and the emergence of a new President. But in the meantime, Gen. Abdal Fattah al-Sisi, the new Army chief, looking resolute and handsome in his military uniform and cap, might on the other hand evolve into the image of a strong leader (the 'Rais') that has been so much a part of the Egyptian tradition."

"After the huge disavowal of Morsi this past June by the millions of people demonstrating in Cairo, the military acted, removing Morsi and his government. The 'deep state' — the bureaucracy, the military and the security services which is a legacy of the Mubarak regime — re-emerged."

"I have fallen in love with this marvelous city of Marrakech, renovated so much since my last visit in 1988 that it has become almost unrecognizable. This dazzling city has become the vacation spot for tourists from neighboring Europe and, to a lesser degree, from the New World."

"...[U]nlike the French in Algeria, the Israelis, back in history, had a leading presence in the land they much, much later moved in on; nevertheless, there are similarities. What struck me most about The Gatekeepers was reminiscent of The Battle of Algiers: thousands and thousands of indigenous faces shouting or silently expressing their unhappiness at living under the thumb of foreign occupying forces. Looking at this sea of frustration, in frames that must have come largely from official Israeli footage, I said to myself, how can the Israelis, in continuing an occupation that has lasted over 45 years, hope to contain this movement?"

"The above issues appear to be the principal points of contention between the text of the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Constitution and the aspirations of the non-Islamists, many of whom are among the youth. Though this matter is not at the heart of the country's current crisis, marked by rampant insecurity and economic stasis, the ambiguities contained in the Constitution may cause serious problems in the future."

"Algeria's operation at its gas field at In Amenas, which terrorists threatened to blow up, ran into four days, and was ended at an extremely heavy cost: 37 expatriates killed, plus one Algerian; and 29 terrorists killed plus three taken captive. Algeria's policy has long been is one of no quarter with terrorists; that plus the legacy of a brutal independence struggle would have made it unlikely that Algeria would have accepted any counter-terrorism assistance from outside powers that in any way would have been seen as an infringement of the country's sovereignty."