Category: Blogs

Five Russian Weapons of War NATO Should Fear

By Robert Farley, National Interest

If diplomacy fails and politics push the alliance into war, these are the weapons NATO will need to worry about the most.

Why Ukraine Was Forced to Fight

By Damon Wilson

The West Retreated From Its Vow of Sanctions, Leaving Kyiv No Option   The Ukrainian military’s counter-offensive in southeast Ukraine suddenly has become Kyiv’s most effective response so far to the three-month-old proxy insurgency waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the fight will be longer and riskier if the West continues its hesitation to […]

Egypt Faces Challenges as it Prepares for Parliamentary Elections

By Yussef Auf

While all eyes were focused in recent weeks on presidential elections and their results, attention should now turn to Egypt’s next vote for the new unicameral parliament, the House of Representatives. The significance of these elections comes from the results of the presidential elections and the events of the last few months. For many reasons […]

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 […]