RESEARCH AREAS

Ioannis Mantzikos
(PhD candidate at the Free State University of South Africa & RIEAS Research Associate)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 5 May 2015

Nigerians celebrated the electrifying victory returned one of its harshest former dictators to power, sobering challenges confront Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari warned the country's brutal Boko Haram insurgents that he would be coming after them. The victory of Muhammadu Buhari, in the March presidential poll, was viewed as a landmark - the first time a sitting president had been voted out of office. Equally important was incumbent Goodluck Jonathan's acceptance of defeat - not a given on a continent in which rulers have often gone to great lengths to retain power. He won 52.4 percent of ballots cast in a March 28-29 vote to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan and his People's Democratic Party, the first lawful transition of power since British colonial rule ended in 1960. Buhari's inauguration is scheduled for May 29 2015...Read more

Sohail Mahmood (PhD)
(Member, RIEAS International Advisory Board)

Copyright @ 2016 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 10 January 2016

The Shia cleric Nimr al Nimr was among the 47 execution on January 2, 2016. Nimr's execution had resulted in Shia protests in several countries of the region. He was a fierce critic of the Saudi rulers and had once even advocated the establishment of a separate Shia state in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia which had a large Shia population. Iran had quickly promised revenge for the execution and so did the Shia Houthis in Yemen. After the execution of Nimr protesters in Tehran responded by torching part of the Saudi Embassy. On January 3, 2016, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced Saudi Arabia was severing ties with Iran. Bahrain had also announced it will sever ties with Iran. Both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were close U.S. allies. Sudan and the UAE also joined in though the UAE's action was limited to downgrading diplomatic relations....Read more

Aya Burweila
(RIEAS Senior Analyst)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 24 March 2016

Only three months into the year, no less than 27 countries across the globe have come under jihadi attack. Mujahideen working for groups or as lone wolves have carried out attacks in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia.

A new chapter in a very old war, today in Europe, the enemy is no longer at the Gates of Vienna, the enemy is already within the gates...Read more

Milica Ćurčić,
(PhD candidate at Faculty of Security Studies, Belgrade University, Serbia
& RIEAS Research Associate)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 3 April 2016

Studies have shown that women have had an extensive history of participating in terrorist activities. It is has been proven in modern terrorism that female involvement began in the nineteenth century with the Russian People's Will, with the onward appearance of Chechen Black Widows and the Tamil Tiger's Birds of Paradise, and other terrorist organizations. Today, we witness that more and more women join terrorist organizations, especially to the Islamic state, and that the role of women are altering and growing, which creates the need for a detailed examination of this phenomena.... Read more

by Daniel Pipes
(President, Middle East Forum)

Copyright: Gatestone Institute, July 15, 2016.
http://www.danielpipes.org/16822/jihad-awakens-europe

Transcript

Hello. I'm Daniel Pipes and I'd like to speculate about the future of Europe. I can see three most likely possibilities.
One is, when it comes to Islam, that everybody gets along, all is well, the future generations are better than the present generations, and there's no real problem. I don't think that's likely, although that is the working hypothesis of governments and, more broadly, the establishments: things will work out, we'll muddle through, it'll be okay. Read more

Marcin Styszyński (PhD)
(Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Chair of Asian Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland)

Copyright: Marcin Styszyński on Line. Publication date in RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) in 7 August 2016.

Recent terrorist attacks in the world, including the tragedy in Nice show that terrorist acts carried out by jihadists still pose a significant threat to international security and demonstrate some new forms of activities....Read more