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MENASource

Feb 6, 2014

Is the Gulf Rethinking Egypt’s Presidency?

By MENASource

Gulf countries have thrown their weight enthusiastically behind Egypt’s military-backed government, but recent signals indicate hesitation over the new Egyptian Field Marshal General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s ascension to the presidency.

North Africa
French Air Force Mirage 2000N

NATOSource

Feb 5, 2014

French Hard Power: Living on the Strategic Edge

By Dorothée Fouchaux, AEI

According to the appropriations statute that follows and implements the white paper’s program, the French defense budget will flat line at €3.38 billion over the next two years and creep ever so slowly to €32.51 billion in 2019.

Economy & Business France

Congressional Relations

Feb 5, 2014

As US Seeks Trade Deals, It Should Include Energy

By New Atlanticist

As the White House scrambles to defend the big trade deals it is negotiating with Europe and Asia, the Atlantic Council’s David Koranyi underscores the benefits of including the energy sector in those talks. After President Obama asked Congress directly for broad authority to negotiate the deals in his State of the Union address last […]

Economy & Business Energy & Environment

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Egypt’s Presidential Elections: From the Outside Looking In [Part II]

By Nader Bakkar

Despite personal convictions about holding presidential elections first, mentioned in the first part of this article, the nomination of two military candidates, in Minister of Defense Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former Chief of Staff Sami Anan, has become a foregone conclusion. (At least at the time of writing.) While some candidates may already have garnered […]

Elections North Africa

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Top News: Regime Hits Mosque With Barrel Bomb; Refugees, Fleeing Bombs, Stuck At Turkish Border

By MENASource

Men pull a girl from the rubble and haul her onto a dirty sheet of plastic, while another child, coated in white dust save for a red streak of blood from his nose, lies with his crushed leg dangling off a gurney—the grisly aftermath from the dropping of a crude “barrel bomb” by Syrian forces […]

EUFOR mission in Chad

NATOSource

Feb 5, 2014

The EU at War: CAR Mission Highlights Internal Tensions

By Maxime H.A. Larivé, National Interest

Four elements need to be reflected upon concerning the CSDP and CAR. First, despite the rapid European reactions to create a military mission, approved by the UN Security Council on January 29 of this year, the EU failed to use the EU Battlegroup concept

European Union France

Trade in Action

Feb 5, 2014

Toward a Transatlantic Energy Alliance?

By David Koranyi and Jesper Packert Pedersen

Liberalization of Energy Trade in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Negotiations over a transatlantic free trade agreement have kicked into gear as US and EU negotiators met for the third time in December and began in earnest to flesh out the details of what has recently been referred to as “an economic NATO”: a reinforced partnership […]

Economy & Business Trade and tariffs

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Top News: Morsi ‘Presidential Palace’ Trial Adjourned to March 1

By EgyptSource

During its fifth hearing, the trial of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and fourteen co-defendants has been adjourned until March 1. Morsi, his presidential aides and senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders are accused of inciting the murder and torture of opposition protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Civil rights lawyers also requested that Defense Minister Abdel […]

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Dispatch: Deepening Polarization in Libya, No Agreement in Sight

By Karim Mezran

More than two years since Libyans and international forces overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya suffers from fragmentation as competing forces vie to fill the power vacuum. An emerging and worrying trend of political blocs within the General National Congress (GNC) forming alliances with certain militia groups—creating new and divisive power centers—threatens to derail the […]

Libya

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Syria: Barrel Bombs On Aleppo

By Frederic C. Hof

Each and every day that the barrel-bombing of Aleppo continues, the Asad regime reminds the world of its true colors. It is the latest barbaric act of a regime that has committed organized, wholesale torture, used chemical weapons, and is starving whole communities by blocking delivery of food to Syrian civilians in urgent need.

Syria