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UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2018

Why Poroshenko’s Anti-Corruption Court Is a Sham Proposal

By Anastasia Krasnosilska

Ukrainians want corrupt public officials to go to jail. It didn’t happen in 2014, 2015, 2016, or 2017. In July, a Kyiv court released Roman Tymkiv, the head of a state-owned military plant, on bail. Tymkiv was accused of embezzling $1 million by supplying the Ukrainian army with used tank engines for the price of […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Jan 18, 2018

Chechen and north Caucasian militants in Syria

By Neil Hauer

One of the most heavily-discussed groupings of foreign fighters in Syria are those from Chechnya and the North Caucasus. While ultimately small in number, they have played an outsized role in the conflict,.

Syria

Rebuilding Syria

Jan 17, 2018

Lessons Learned: A Year After the Fall of Aleppo

By Abdullah Almousa

This past December marks one year since Aleppo fell back into regime control following six years of fighting and a bloody aerial bombing campaign. This put an end to the most violent theatre of war in Syria; marked by the departure of those expelled from Aleppo on the last convoy on December 22 to the […]

UkraineAlert

Jan 17, 2018

How Poroshenko Can Easily Be Reelected

By Diane Francis

Democracies guarantee freedom of speech for their elected politicians by granting them immunity from libel or slander for statements made inside their legislative chambers. This privilege was established centuries ago in Britain to protect the people’s representatives from the monarchy, House of Lords, and other powerful vested interests. Ukraine, on the other hand, has perverted […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

Jan 17, 2018

Securing Eastern Syria in 2018

By Frederic C. Hof

For the better part of three years, this writer has recommended an accelerated battle against ISIS (ISIL, Daesh, Islamic State) in eastern Syria, one that would replace the pseudo-caliphate with a governance arrangement featuring reconstituted local councils, Syrian civil servants possessing needed skills, and the mainstream Syrian opposition (including the Turkish-supported Syrian Interim Government). Part […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2018

What Did Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution Really Accomplish?

By Melinda Haring

Yale University history professor Marci Shore’s new book, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2018), captures the historic period surrounding the Maidan revolution that took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, from November 2013 to February 2014, when ordinary Ukrainians took to the streets and demanded justice and dignity. Shore’s book couldn’t […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2018

Why Is Hungary Blocking Ukraine’s Western Integration?

By Péter Krekó and Patrik Szicherle

For the first time since the Maidan revolution, Ukraine’s road to the transatlantic community is being actively blocked not only by Russia but by an EU and NATO member state as well: Hungary. While Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been a vocal critic of sanctions and is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strongest allies […]

Hungary Russia

MENASource

Jan 16, 2018

Tunisia 2018: Permanent mobilization or return to the past?

By Karim Mezran & Erin A. Neale

The riots that have occurred in many Tunisian cities and villages at the beginning of 2018 have caught by surprise many experts and observers of Tunisia’s political and socio-economic evolution. Tunisia has been presented to the world as the only success story in the framework of the so-called Arab Spring. Unfortunately, judging it as a […]

Democratic Transitions North Africa

MENASource

Jan 14, 2018

What’s next? Seven years after Tunisia’s spring

By Andrea Taylor and Elissa Miller

Seven years after the 2011 Arab uprisings, Tunisia remains the only country to have emerged from the sweeping changes that took hold in the region as a fledgling democracy. Since then-President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali stepped down from power of January 14, 2011, Tunisia has accomplished a number of major successes, including holding free and […]

Democratic Transitions North Africa
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Global Energy Forum

Jan 13, 2018

Women Seek a Bigger Role in Arab Gulf’s Energy Sector

By Larry Luxner

Women are a rare sight at the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, and they’re almost never seen in the oilfields. Hiba Dialdin wants to change that—even if it means changing the entire corporate culture of the largest petroleum conglomerate on Earth. Dialdin, a petroleum engineering consultant at Saudi Aramco, was one of five women to speak […]

Saudi Arabia The Gulf
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