Areas Of Expertise

Trump administration expected to approve Israel annexing areas of West Bank

John T Bennet – White House officials and senior lawmakers are operating under the assumption that Israel will soon begin annexing areas of the West Bank, according to a Senate source familiar with recent conversations. Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Donald Trump‘s son-in-law and top Middle East peace envoy, briefed senators on Wednesday behind

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The growing threat of ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Africa

By the Newafricanmagazine – From the Sahel to Mozambique, terror attacks by groups affiliated to ISIS and Al-Qaeda have been on the increase in recent years. Al Venter takes a detailed look what is happening in the terror hotspots and how African countries and their allies are responding to the problem Colonel

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Isis and al-Qaeda join forces in West Africa

By Danielle Paquette and Joby Warrick – Groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, at war with each other in the Middle East, are working together to take control of territory across a vast stretch of West Africa, US and local officials say, sparking fears the regional threat could grow into

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NATO Public Diplomacy partners with the Fulbright

This new programme’s aim is to foster awareness and understanding of NATO and promote debate on security and defence on a transatlantic level. International scholars apply annually via the Fulbright Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). The Fulbright Commission in Brussels and the NATO Public Diplomacy Division will

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Estonian companies to develop a NATO cyber platform

The Tallinn-based companies, Guardtime and Cyber Technologies, will develop an automated command and development platform for the NATO Cyber Range. By Silver Tambur – The Estonian Centre for Defence Investment has signed an agreement with Guardtime and GT Cyber Technologies for the companies to develop over four years an automated command and

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Obstacles to a Pan-European Army

Rapidly Increasing European Defense Capabilities  By By Maxwell Zhu – American leadership and NATO have been the linchpin of European defense since the end of the Cold War, but the Trump administration’s actions have irrevocably damaged this relationship. President Trump has repeatedly and publicly called out European contributions to NATO, seriously considered withdrawing the United

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How the coronavirus affects NATO and security

Militaries will have to strike a delicate balance between juggling domestic obligations and external security threats. By Luke Coffey – The rapid spread of the coronavirus has dominated news headlines all around the world. Tragic images and heartbreaking stories emerging from places like China, South Korea, Iran and Italy have

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Europe’s Absence in the Middle East

By Judy Dempsey For Carnegie Europe- When the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the European Union clinched a deal with Iran on its nuclear program in 2015, there were some hopes that the agreement would usher in a period of stability in the Middle East. But when

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Europe and the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Middle East

By Rusi – Tobias Borck– As Europe has become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, governments on the continent have closed borders and turned inwards, scrambling to curb the outbreak and minimise the economic fallout. The crisis is raising big questions about European solidarity, while pushing other matters such as

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Ravaged by war, Middle Eastern countries face a new scourge

CAIRO — When Dr. Ismail al-Mansouri goes to work in Yemen’s capital, he puts on one of the hospital’s few pairs of medical gloves. Then he enters a cramped clinic teeming with listless patients, many malnourished, some vomiting, others with diarrhea. Al-Mansouri, a pediatrician, has been struggling for years to

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US wages endless war on terror, but fails in war on coronavirus

From MEE – The United States built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities, spending nearly $6.4 trillion in wars that killed half a million people since 2001. In contrast, there has been little focus on preparing the country for the Covid-19 pandemic. This begs the question: what is the bigger threat? The world has

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Is France changing its position on Libya and starting to support Haftar?

Dr Mustafa Fetouri – Last Monday, the French government hosted Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar on a brief, unannounced, visit to Paris. Accompanied by his top political advisor, my ex-academic colleague turned politician Fadel Ed-Deep, he met President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace. After the meeting an Élysée official said that, “Marshal

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Will Turkey ever be part of the European Union?

“I would like to hear a clear declaration,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit to Poland last week. “If you want to accept Turkey, just do it. If you don’t want to, just say that.” Erdogan was of course, speaking of Turkey’s bid to join the EU, a partnership

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Euro-Area Economy Shrinking 10% With Worse Still to Come

The euro-area economy is in a slump of unprecedented scale, and the contraction may deepen even further as lockdowns to contain the coronavirus are extended. IHS Markit said its monthly measure of services and manufacturing points to an annualized economic contraction of about 10%. With new business, confidence and employment

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Trump Forced by Oil War Into Unthinkable Push for Higher Prices

Donald Trump is trying to do something no U.S. president has dared to do in decades: Drive up the price of oil. For more than three decades, U.S. presidents proclaimed cheap fuel as an almost God-given right for American motorists and homeowners, shaping the country’s foreign policy in pursuit of

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