EDITORIAL

Q & A

Dr. Tassos Symeonidis
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 19 September 2020

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

Recent developments in the Eastern Med and Turkey’s aggressive militaristic antics have brought a shooting war with Greece ante portas. Is Greece ready for a clash of arms with Erdogan’s Islamist neo-Hitlerite expansionist authoritarianism?

Those who wish to hedge their bets, along with the “realists,” would probably respond “perhaps” to this question. A loud minority will bark “come and get it.” The “level-headed” pro-EU, pro-US, pro-illegal immigration, pro-NGO “humanitarian” constituency, sustained and fed from subversive sources abroad, along with the overwhelming majority of Greek politicians and the peculiar species of academic “peaceniks,” will shudder at the thought and will tell us so emphatically. As for the proverbial “average man” in the street, he will either say he knows “nothing about these things” or, simply, shrug his shoulders indifferently.... Read more

Shaul Shay
(Senior research fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 19 September 2020

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

The Iran backed Houthi rebels took over the Yemeni capital in September 2014 after ousting President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Saudi lead coalition intervened in March 2015 to restore Hadi to power, sparking a war which has killed more than 100,000 people, displaced millions and still far from being over.
The Houthi rebels claimed on September 10, 2020, they had launched an attack on an "important target" in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones. Spokesman for the Houthi military claimed that a Zulfikar ballistic missile and three Samad-3 drones were used to target a key site in the Saudi capital.... Read more

Dr. Tassos Symeonidis
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 12 September 2020

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

On September 4, the Turkish daily Yeni Safak, Erdogan’s mouthpiece (akin to the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party daily newspaper), published an article under the war-drum bombastic title “Fear of Turkey’ is spreading like wildfire. If Turkey is back, others will go! Anti-Erdoğan sentiment has nothing to do with internal policy. The East Mediterranean belongs to Turkey!” In the now routine Erdogan barbaric jingoistic style, the writer confidently predicted that “Whenever we returned, whenever we achieved a rise, others regressed and weakened. This is because both our existence and struggle has been with the most powerful.” ... Read more

Is Europe ready to cave in to the world’s loose cannon?

Dr. Tassos Symeonidis
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 6 September 2020

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

The only thing bullies respect is strength, and the Free World has shown precious little of that in recent times.
Timothy Ogden

Those who truly worry about the steadily worsening situation in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, thanks to Erdogan’s incessant piratical sing-and-dance, have every reason to be concerned at the pathetic posture of both NATO and the EU vis-a-vis Turkey, which “Mossad thinks...is a bigger menace than Iran.” ...Read more

Thinking About Greek Strategy
Dr. Tassos Symeonidis
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 30 August 2020

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

Those who have spent years watching Turkey’s attempts to create a fete accompli in the Aegean, and Greece’s rather numb reactions stressing imaginary “red lines” that may be not crossed and other such figures of speech (not to forget appeals to the EU and NATO for ‘solidarity’ that never really materializes), have become skeptical of using the term “strategy.” B.H. Liddell Hart, one of the most prolific and influential strategic theorists of the 20th Century, defined strategy as “the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy.”... Read more

Anita Rai
(Counterterrorism expert/consultant; contributor to Intelligence and Security Journals/Orgs, author of forthcoming book Jihad and Terrorism, based in London, UK)

Copyright © 2020 Anita Rai.

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

At a time when a considerable section of the Islamic world has come under the sway of “Caliph” Erdogan, the Republic of India has come up from under the haunting shadows of the most gruesome of Muslim invasions by restoring the Ram Temple in Ayodhya for the indigenous majority whose iconic place of worship was destroyed and converted to a mosque along with thousands more. ... Read more