Category: Blogs

Iraqis Spinning Their Wheels

By Ramzy Mardini

Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry made his second trip to Iraq since taking on his current position, hoping it would end better than his first visit.

Time is Running Out for the Libyan Economy

By Mohsin Khan and Karim Mezran

As Libya spirals out of control, a robust, public discourse about the political and security situation among authorities and policymakers in Tripoli and in Western capitals is strikingly absent.

Finnish Prime Minister Still Eyes NATO Membership

By Juhana Rossi, Wall Street Journal

Finland is unlikely to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the coming years because of a lack of support among Finnish voters—despite Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea

Top News: Egypt to Raise Petrol Price by 78 Percent as Government Cuts Subsidies

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s government raised the prices of fuel by up to 78 percent starting Saturday, following on a promise to cut subsidies that eat up nearly a quarter of the state budget.

Top News: ISIS Expels 60,000 From Homes in Eastern Syria

By MENASource

The al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, also known as simply IS) has expelled more than 30,000 people from their homes in the eastern Syrian town of Shiheil, a stronghold of its jihadist rival the Nusra Front. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights a further 30,000 residents have been […]

Ambassadors Rapp About Syria

With more than 162,000 killed in Syria’s ongoing and brutal conflict, the war has exacted a human cost that now surpasses the atrocities in former Yugoslavia & Sierra Leone. Stephen J. Rapp, Ambassador-at-Large of the US State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice, spoke with Ambassador Fred Hof, senior fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center for the […]

EconSource: Egypt’s Sisi risks popularity with fuel, electricity and cigarette price hikes

By EconSource

Follow the latest in economic news and developments about the Arab transition countries. 

NATO Signals No New Members for the Present

By John-Thor Dahlburg, AP

Faced with a newly aggressive Russia, NATO has been mulling how to react, but it is ruling out one option: rapid expansion.

Visegrad Countries May Turn EU Battlegroup into Permanent V4 Rapid Reaction Force

By Visegrád Group

We, the Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, recognize that current security trends in Europe call for even closer regional defence cooperation and multinational programs deeply rooted in NATO and EU policies.