Content

MENASource

May 6, 2015

Guns, Butter, and the Future of the Gulf States

By Mathew Burrows

Recent news reports of the Saudis burning through their foreign currency reserves at record pace over the past couple months. Combined with the growing conflict in Yemen and an already heavy engagement in Syria begs questions about the future of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) neighbors.

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2015

Barzani: ‘An Independent Kurdistan is Coming’

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Kurdish leader says region will hold referendum after ISIS has been defeated Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will hold a referendum on Kurdish independence once Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) extremists have been defeated, KRG President Masoud Barzani said May 6 at the Atlantic Council. Barzani couldn’t predict when an independent Kurdistan would […]

Iraq

MENASource

May 6, 2015

The Cult of ISIS and Foreign Recruits

By Mona Alami

Analysts have described the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) as the most powerful terrorist organization of this decade. However, few have discussed the shared characteristics between the extremist nebula and modern cults, particularly regarding the recruitments of westerners and fresh converts.

Iraq Syria

MENASource

May 6, 2015

Top News: Houthis Fire Across Border into Saudi Arabia

By MENASource

Yemen’s rebels fired rockets and mortars into Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, killing at least three people and purportedly capturing five soldiers in an attack showing the insurgents’ ability to launch assaults despite weeks of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting them.

MENASource

May 6, 2015

Top News: Ministry of Social Solidarity to Investigate Alleged Shia NGOs

By EgyptSource

The ministry of social solidarity announced the formation of a committee tasked with investigating NGOs that allegedly practice or promote Shia rituals. The head of the central administration of the NGOs within the ministry, Khaled Sultan said the committee was formed upon a decree from Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Waly.

MENASource

May 6, 2015

EconSource: World Bank Approves $500 Million Loan for Egypt Public Housing Project

By EconSource

The World Bank has approved a $500 million loan to Egypt to support a government affordable housing project, Minister of Housing Moustafa Madbouly said Wednesday.

MENASource

May 5, 2015

Can Egyptian-American Mohamed Soltan be Deported?

By Sonia Farid

With Mohamed Soltan’s hunger strike exceeding 450 days, speculation is rife as to how long he can survive in an Egyptian prison. In early April, Soltan, who is an American-Egyptian dual citizen, was sentenced to life in prison—technically a twenty-five year sentence in Egypt. A new law introduced last November by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allowing […]

North Africa
Members of NATO's Cyber Rapid Reaction Team

NATOSource

May 5, 2015

NATO’s Cybermen

By NATO

There are six men. All dressed in black like the ones in the famous movie. They have black cases too but they are not using their technology to erase your memory. Their name: NATO Rapid Reaction Team, or RRT.

Cybersecurity NATO

New Atlanticist

May 5, 2015

Is this France’s Own Patriot Act?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Controversial surveillance rules unlike the ‘knee-jerk’ US law passed after 9/11, says Atlantic Council’s Dungan Controversial surveillance rules passed May 5 by France’s lower house of Parliament are quite unlike the “knee-jerk” US Patriot Act that followed al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, said Atlantic Council analyst Nicholas Dungan. Dungan, a Nonresident Senior Fellow […]

France Intelligence

EconoGraphics

May 5, 2015

Creating the Digital Single Market

By Global Business & Economics Program

European E-Commerce is still largely confined within national borders.

Economy & Business Europe & Eurasia