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MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

Mitigating US-Turkish Disagreement over the PYD

By Francis Ricciardone and Aaron Stein

Turkey and the United States share strategic interests regarding Syria, not least defeating the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). However, they remain at odds over their definitions of their full strategic purposes. One element is ripe for resolution: clarifying their respective intents toward the Kurdish communities of Syria, while revising their […]

Syria Turkey

SyriaSource

Feb 23, 2016

Afrin and the Race for the Azaz Corridor

By Thomas Schmidinger

For the last five years Afrin (Kurdish: Efrîn) was the most tranquil of the three Kurdish enclaves in Syria. As in the other two Kurdish cantons, Kobane and Jazira (Kurdish: Kobanê, Cizîrê), the Syrian regime army pulled back from the region in spring 2012 and left it to the control of Democratic Union Party (PYD) […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Feb 23, 2016

China’s Challenge to Guarantee Energy and Water Security

By Jack Schnettler

China may hold the key to alleviating some of the pressure from climate change and population growth at the nexus of the relationship between the energy and water sectors. The challenges associated with energy production and water management vary significantly from region to region. A recent report from the World Resources Institute and General Electric […]

China Climate Change & Climate Action

EconoGraphics

Feb 23, 2016

Tug of Budget War in Brussles

By Global Business and Economics

In the past weeks, the Portuguese government and EU authorities have engaged in a tug of war over the Portuguese budget proposal for 2016. The European Commission (EC) warned the newly elected anti-austerity government that it risked “serious non-compliance” with the EU’s fiscal rules. Finally, Lisbon narrowly avoided becoming the first Eurozone country to have its budget rejected by Brussels, as it agreed to additional tax hikes and spending cuts.

Economy & Business European Union

SyriaSource

Feb 23, 2016

Cessation of Hostilities: Urgent, But Not Likely

By Frederic C. Hof

The cessation of hostilities in Syria originally scheduled to take effect on or about February 19 is now slated—per a Russia-United States joint statement—to take effect on February 27. Although Syrian rebel groups are being invited (along with the Assad regime and its external supporters) to signal acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and […]

Syria

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: UK, Turkey, Assad, and opposition skeptical over ceasefire

By MENASource

Syria’s regime agreed Tuesday to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by Saturday as planned. The State Department made the five-page plan public after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Monday.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

EconSource: Islamic State Rigs Currency Rates in Mosul to Prop Up Finances

By EconSource

Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul are manipulating the exchange rate between US dollars and Iraqi dinars as the US-led anti-ISIS coalition attacks the group’s finances.

UkraineAlert

Feb 23, 2016

Parliament Votes to Weaken Ukraine’s Key Anti-Corruption Law

By Josh Cohen

Since the overthrow of former President Viktor Yanukovych, the attitude of Ukraine’s post-Maidan government toward reform could best be described as ambivalent. Last week was a case in point. While Kyiv and its Western partners remained riveted by the fate of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, parliament greatly weakened a key anti-corruption law originally enacted almost one-and-a-half […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: Conflicting Accounts in Case of 4-Year-Old Sentenced to Life in Prison

By EgyptSource

Denying a flurry of media reports to the contrary, the Armed Forces released a statement Monday declaring that a 4-year-old boy has not been sentenced to life in prison by a military court, but rather a 16-year-old boy of a similar name. On February 16, a military court sentenced 116 people to life in prison […]

SyriaSource

Feb 23, 2016

Aleppo, Azaz, and Failed US Syria Policy

By Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff

Aleppo and Azaz are two cities in northern Syria that represent the result of US Syria policy. After five years of half measures, false starts, broken red lines, and bouts of funding for Syrian aid and development projects, we have now entered a new phase: uncoordinated pieces of the US intelligence and defense community supporting […]

Syria
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