GLOBAL ISSUES

Jean Labrique and Dr. Bruce D. Tefft,
(Secretary General and Vice-President to Western Defense Studies Institute (WDSI)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

From the very beginning of his presidency, Barack Hussein Obama, has constantly proved his preferences for the Islamic World.  Every decision with an Islamic element to it has always been in favor of Muslims at the expense of traditional America policies and allies.

Bowing in front of the King of Saudi’s House, his speech in Cairo, and many other occasions are proofs of this observation.

Obama’s early withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq will leave the 2 countries to the machinations of radical rogue state Iran and a resurgent Taliban/al-Qaeda.  Obama has already abandoned Lebanon to the Iranian terrorist front organization Hizballah and is in the process of forcing Israeli submission to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian Liberation Organization and HAMAS.

Daniela Spînu
(PhD Candidate, University of Bucharest, Romania)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr
 

Introduction

Radical Islam has gained more and more adherents among muslim migrants of the second and third generation. Individuals, who no longer identify with any nation state, are prisoners between two cultures and, while living in western European society, studying in European universities, getting married and having children, they resort to radical action. In the knowledge society, intelligence communities must connect to complex situations, difficult to prevent, citizens of European countries turning into executives of terrorist attacks on European soil... Read more
 

Daniel Little
(RIEAS Senior Advisor)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Security prognostication can be a tricky undertaking.  That is why a clear distinction must be made between what is accepted as fact and the inference of where future possibilities lie.  Such is the case for Mediterranean piracy.  As opposed to piracy anywhere else, the Mediterranean deserves future consideration for a myriad of reasons.  As isolated issues, the Eurozone, fledgling ‘Arab Spring’ governments, illicit trafficking and terror have select, dedicated audiences that sift, analyze and construe significance specifically tailored to their sponsors.  Having stated this up front it is entirely plausible that as a whole, Mediterranean piracy could eventually surpass similar events occurring around the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Strait of Malacca.  As a result, the prognostication I intend to explain is how and why a sophisticated matrix of large-scale theft and extortion might have an added dimension of graphic attacks on Mediterranean vessels. ... Read more   

Prof. Daniel Pipes
(Director, Middle East Forum, USA)

Copyright: http://www.danielpipes.org/12298/dictators-elected-islamists

Who is worse, President Mohamed Morsi, the elected Islamist seeking to apply Islamic law in Egypt, or President Husni Mubarak, the former dictator ousted for trying to start a dynasty? More broadly will a liberal, democratic order more likely emerge under Islamist ideologues who prevail through the ballot box or from greedy dictators with no particular agenda beyond their own survival and power?  Read more

The geometry of a relationship after the Arab Spring

Marina Eleftheriadou
(PhD candidate, Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of Peloponnese. Co-editor of the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (cemmis.edu.gr). The doctoral research, of which this paper is part, has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: Heracleitus II.)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The beauty in the simplicity of the “no war without Egypt, no peace without Syria” dictum has lent it an axiomatic importance among the scholars of the Middle Eastern affairs. However, while Kissinger’s apothegm, for decades, was used to discuss Syria’s role as a spoiler in the Arab-Israeli or Palestinian-Israeli peace process, the newly created uncertainties regarding Cairo’s  internal  dynamics,  formal  and  informal  policies  vis-à-vis  Israel  and  the  various Palestinian constituencies have brought Egypt back in the headlines. For 30 years the peace treaty signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin has spared Israel from problems stemming from its south-western borders, providing Tel Aviv with a secure rear while facing challenges from Syria and Lebanon and the Palestinian groups from inside and outside Palestine. When Hamas took over Gaza, the importance of Egyptian non-hostility became increasingly important as Cairo in fact collaborated with Israel in the latter’s effort to put pressure on Hamas in military, economic and political terms.....  Read more

Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
(Chairman of the Intl. Law & Global Pol. Studies and the author of the forthcoming book ‘Is there life after Facebook’, Addleton Academic Publishers, NY & RIEAS Member of International Advisory Board)

Copyright: www.europeworld.org

There is a claim currently circulating the EU, both cynical and misleading: ‘multiculturalism is dead in Europe’. No wonder, as the conglomerate of nation-states/EU has silently handed over one of its most important debates – that of European identity – to the wing-parties, recently followed by the several selective and contra-productive foreign policy actions...  Read more