Anis H. Bajrektarevic
(Geopolitics of Energy Editorial Member, and Chairperson for Intl. Law & Global Pol. Studies, Vienna, Austria)

Copyright: Anis H. Bajrektarevic on line

As the recent maritime contests in both the South and the East China Sea has shown, Beijing underestimated an emotional charge that the territorial disputes carry along, as well as the convenience given to the neighbors to escalate these frictions in order to divert public attention from their own pressing domestic socio-economic and political issues. A costly, spiral and dangerous game of the reinvigorated nationalistic rhetoric, it presently instigate a climate that could easily hijack the next Asian decade as a whole......  Read more

Copyright: Taipei Representative Office in Greece

The Republic of China has made impressive headway in improving cross-strait and foreign relations over the last four years. This progress stems from the government’s adherence to viable diplomacy, a farsighted approach that removes obstacles preventing the nation from cooperating more effectively with its diplomatic allies and partners in the international arena....  Read more 

Copyright: Taiwanese Delegation in Athens, Greece. 

In remarks made on the morning of August 5 at the Opening Ceremony of the Special Exhibition on the 60th Anniversary of the Coming into Force of the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan, which was co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Academia Historica at the Taipei Guest House, President Ma Ying-jeou expressed his concern regarding rising tensions over the Diaoyutai Islands. He proposed the East China Sea Peace Initiative aimed at easing these tensions, and called on all parties concerned to show restraint, shelve controversies and settle the dispute in a peaceful manner. It is hoped, he said, that reaching a consensus on a code of conduct in the East China Sea, and on establishing a mechanism for cooperation on exploring and developing resources in the East China Sea, would help ensure peace in this region.

(Why Indonesia and Japan are pivotal in Asia)

Anis H. Bajrektarevic
( Geopolitics of Energy Editorial Member & Chairperson for Intl. Law & Global Pol. Studies, Austria)

Copyright: Anis H. Bajrektarevic on line

On the eastern, ascendant flank of Eurasian continent, the Chinese vertigo economy is overheated and too-well integrated in the petrodollar system. Beijing, presently, cannot contemplate or afford to allocate any resources in a search for an alternative. (The Sino economy is low-wage- and labor intensive- centered. Chinese revenues are heavily dependent on exports and Chinese reserves are predominantly a mix of the USD and US Treasury bonds.) To sustain itself as a single socio-political and formidably performing economic entity, the People’s Republic requires more energy and less external dependency. Domestically, the demographic-migratory pressures are huge, regional demands are high, and expectations are brewing. Considering its best external energy dependency equalizer (and inner cohesion solidifier), China seems to be turning to its military upgrade rather than towards the resolute alternative energy/Green Tech investments – as it has no time, plan and resources to do both at once. Inattentive of a broader picture, Beijing (probably falsely) believes that lasting containment, especially in the South China Sea, is unbearable, and that – at the same time – fossil-fuels are available (e.g., in Africa and the Gulf), and even cheaper with the help of warships.

Keshav mazumdar
(Certified Master Antiterrorism Specialist & RIEAS Member of International Advisory Board)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Our country’s decision makers- should receive unbiased, non-parochial, all-source intelligence threat estimates based upon need to know basis. But that is lacking. Today we have the IB, Directorate General of Security, the RAW, Directorate General Of MI, Air Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Technical Research Agency. Little coordination exists between them leading to poor information sharing, continuity loss, and inadequate threat analysis/estimate. Compartmentalization by the agencies further fortify these difficulties.

Anis H. Bajrektarevic
(Geopolitics of Energy Editorial Member & Chairperson for Intl. Law & Global Pol. Studies, Austria)

Copyright: Anis H. Bajrektarevic on line

Note: Based on the public lecture “Asia – Pacific: The Hydrocarbon Status Quo and Climate Change”, Chulalongkorn University, Mahachulalongkorn/MEA Think-Tank; Thailand, Bangkok 04 OCT 2011.

The unrest in the Arab world, which has continued for over a year now, implies one important conclusion beyond any ongoing regional struggle for democracy: It is a reflection about the globally important technological, even more about a crucial geopolitical breakthrough – an escape from the logics of the hydrocarbon status quo, which – after Copenhagen 2009 – failed again in Durban 2011.... Read more 

Zhyldyz Oskonbaeva
(RIEAS Senior Analyst & Eurasian Liaison)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

As it stands today the nuclear situation in Iran is still not crystal clear. There isn’t a clearly mapped transparent report of the nuclear sites of Iran.  But that’s not because intelligence forces are hiding the information from international public eyes, nor because they do not have complete intelligence on Iran’s Nuclear Program. The issue is that even all the existing and so far declared nuclear achievements of Iran are covert.  Which might make it difficult for forces to pin point the sites before bombing. So one of the obstacles is that bombing might bring major civilian loses. 

CHENG, Yu-Chin
(Lecturer, Institute of Political Science, Charles Univesrity in Prague, Director of European Office for Defense Technology Monthly Taipei, Taiwan)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Introduction

The North Korean official media mouthpiece confirmed that the North Korean General  Kim Jong-II died on 18th December 2011, and this sudden news rocked the world politics. Except China, the members of the Six-Party Talk and Japan had nothing about his death, and the intelligence chiefs were under the criticis from their own parliaments and the press. Due to no early-warning intelligence, more and more people criticised the worse effectiveness of the intelligence services. Unlike abovementioned countries, the EU memeber states suffers less complaints and critics, but it cannot be interpreted that the EU people underestimate the Korean Peninsula Situation, but the EU manages this nuclear-like issue very carefuly. ... Read more

By Alexis Giannoulis
(RIEAS Research Associate & Independent Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

In 24 September 2011 the world witnessed the end of the debate about who will be running for (and most certainly become) the next Russian president at the elections of 2012. The plan was revealed on the 24th of September at the annual conference of United Russia party and this plan shocked a good portion of international and Russian political analysts and experts. However and rather astonishingly, a large amount of respected international media have welcomed this arrangement as an orderly ‘swap’ of the two most important posts in Russian politics, the one of the president and the one of the prime minister (PM). For example, a FT article of September 22 argued that the uncertainty surrounding the 2012 elections has “left Russia paralysed” . Washington had also claimed that whoever becomes the next Russian President the “reset” of US-Russian relations would continue  without, in essence officially commenting on the swap.... Read more 

Ketki Madane
(RIEAS Regional Director in Southeast Asia and Australia)
Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The invention of the printing press in 1440 created an information revolution which at first was controlled by a few powerful entities. By the 20th century, due to the explosion of the internet and the freely available information online, pioneers in the social networking industry such as Friendster brought a unique flavor to friendship.
After Friendster set the bar for social networking, its competitors came in the form of Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, Linkedin and the newest player – Twitter. As platforms became increasingly sophisticated after newer versions were introduced, social media began to catch the eye of corporations.

Richard L. Benkin, Ph.D.
(President, Forcefield)

Copyright: Richard L. Benkin on line

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. That is not opinion; it is a fact.  At the time of India’s partition (1947), they were just under one in three East Pakistanis.  When East Pakistan became Bangladesh (1971), they were under one in five; thirty years later less than one in ten; and according to some estimates, under eight percent today.  Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York, using demographic and other methods, calculates that well over 49 million of them are missing (Dastidar, 2008).(1) During that same period, regular reports of anti-Hindu atrocities have poured out of Bangladesh.  They have not slowed even with the landslide election of the self-styled “pro-minority” Awami League government at the end of 2008.  Serious anti-Hindu actions occurred at the rate of almost one a week in 2009; and they have continued without let up in 2010 and 2011.(2)   This puts every one of Bangladesh’s remaining 13-15,000,000 Hindus at risk.  Yet, while these numbers dwarf those of the worst cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing (e.g., Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur), no major human rights organization, international body, or individual nation has highlighted this quiet case of ethnic cleansing or even raised it as a matter for investigation.

On April 12, 2011, RIEAS Director John M. Nomikos, along with Senior Analyst Aya Burweila and Research Associate Georgios Protopapas, met with a visiting delegation from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). Headed by SIIS President Dr. Yang Jiemian, who actually extended the kind invitation to meet, the Chinese delegation also comprised:

Dr. JIANG Xiyuan, Senior Associate, Institute of International Strategy, SIIS,
Dr. SHAO Yuqun, Deputy Director, Institute of Taiwan, HK and Macau Studies, SIIS,
Mr. ZHA Xiaogang, Researcher, Institute of World Economy, SIIS,
Ms. LOU Xiangfei, Researcher, Institute of Foreign Policy, SIIS,
Mr. LU Chuanying, Researcher, Institute of Data Processing, SIIS.

Vassilios Damiras
(Counterterrorism Expert based in USA)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

 The famous military terms counterterrorism and counterinsurgency dominated the political and military lexicons after the brutal terrorist attacks organized by al Qaeda against the Twins Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Counter terrorism apply to military operation executed by U.S. Special Forces and unmanned Predator aircrafts. These Special Forces operations are specifically designed to capture or killed “high-value targets.”

 Counterinsurgency know as COIN is applied to incorporate to those military, political, paramilitary, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by the U.S. Armed Forces to defeat insurgency. This combined approach and effort strongly requires a great number of ground troops for an extended period of time.

Copyright: Dr. Peter Becker on line

Dr. Peter Becker’s Speech in the International  Intelligence History Association (IIHA) Conference: “Intelligence and Society” at the Akademie fur Politische Bildung Tutzing on 23-25 April 2010 in Munich, Germany.  Read more
 

M. Aynul Islam
(Curently VLIR Scholar at IOB, University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is also Assistant Professor of Political Science, Jagannath University, Bangladesh)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Although the history of violence and conflicts in South Asia is longer than the nation-state, the religious militancy in the last decade has become a scourge, affecting development and security of its 1.5 billion people.

Dr. Dimitrios – Vassilios KOKKINOS

The recent achievements of Russian Hydrocarbon Diplomacy in June to sign common commercial agreements in Natural Gas with Azerbaijan and Nigeria highlight the problem of Europe’s security of Supply, in view of the continuously increasing need of Europe for imported Natural Gas and the diminishing number of reliable suppliers. This article by Dr. D. Kokkinos exposes with the author’s usual perspicacity the Gas issue for Europe, an issue that the author has deep and long expertise. Read more