Publications
Five years ago, significant deposits of natural gas were discovered off the coast of Israel, followed in 2011 by a minor natural gas discovery offshore of neighboring Cyprus. These discoveries have catalyzed explorations in the greater Eastern Mediterranean region generating expectations of enhanced regional energy security and economic and environmental payoffs, benefits Israel has already begun to reap with the Tamar gas field, which began operating in 2013. In the past year, Israel, with the help of the United States, and energy investors have made progress in negotiating initial agreements for gas supplies to Israel’s neighbors. These agreements could contribute to regional prosperity.
In December, however, an anti-trust challenge arose in Israel that may delay the development of the Leviathan gas field, the largest in the region; delay progress on proposed gas supply projects from Israel to its neighbors, including Jordan and Egypt; and threaten the security of Israel’s supply. This anti-trust challenge is ill-founded.
• Boko Haram continues to terrorize northeastern Nigeria; the group has been responsible for the deaths of more than 10,000 Nigerians last year, and according to some Nigerian officials, the group currently controls as much as 70 percent of Borno as well as parts of neighboring states—an area close to the size of West Virginia
Read the Report (PDF)Around the world, rising rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents an emerging an increasingly significant cause for concern. As a variety of infectious pathogens develop greater resistance to antimicrobial drugs, such drugs consequently become less effective, leading not only to outcomes like longer recovery periods and extended hospital stays, but broader threats to the fabric of our societies and our globalized economy. Indeed, increasing rates of AMR, driven by misuse of antimicrobial drugs, could potentially undo many of the medical advances made over the past 70 years, eroding the global medical safety net and presenting a significant threat to national security.
Judging from the more than one million people who gathered in Paris - and others in smaller rallies in Europe and in Washington, D.C. -- the murder of 17 journalists, police and shoppers in a Jewish market by three terrorists claiming to be avenging insults to Islam has brought together ordinary people from many religions and ethnic groups in an emphatic rejection of violence and intolerance.
Economics Have Stalled Putin, But He Often Answers Reversals with Military Threats
In the Ukraine crisis, soft economic power last month trumped hard military power for the first time. The threatened meltdown of the Russian economy could push Russian President Vladimir Putin to dial down his undeclared war on Ukraine in return for some easing of Western financial sanctions. Still, that is not assured.
Today's shocking attack in Paris underlines the threat that terrorist fanatics pose to civilized society everywhere.
But on the battlefronts of Iraq, IS has lost its edge. Iraqi Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. airpower, have now retaken virtually all the territory they lost to the group over the summer, according to Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the department of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
