Strategy

The Myth of Saudi Power

Tue, 12/04/2016 - 08:38
Original Article Post Date: 
Tue, 12/04/2016

Image: Flickr/Al Jazeera English - Omar Chatriwala. CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Mohammed Nuruzzaman

The 'Salman Doctrine' can't back up its tough talk.
Analysts from the Gulf Arab states are generally upbeat about Saudi Arabia’s possible military dominance in the Gulf neighborhood and the Middle East region. A Saudi commentator has recently argued in an online feature published by the National Interest that Riyadh, in collaboration with Sunni Arab and Muslim allies, stands poised to fill the strategic void created by America’s move to disengage from the Middle East.

Japan's Africa ambitions

Sat, 09/04/2016 - 08:19
Original Article Post Date: 
Sat, 09/04/2016

The hosting of Mugabe reveals the duelling pressures that face Japan as it looks to engage more states in Africa, writes Miller [EPA]

 

J Berkshire Miller

The hosting of Mugabe reveals the duelling pressures that face Japan as it looks to engage more states in Africa, writes Miller [EPA]. Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hosted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for an official five-day visit in Tokyo. Abe has now met Mugabe three times, despite Harare's isolation from the West - and, more acutely to Japan - especially the United States.

 

Enhancing nuclear security

Tue, 05/04/2016 - 08:27
Original Article Post Date: 
Tue, 05/04/2016


The Japan Times
Concerned about the prospect of terrorists getting their hands on nuclear materials, U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010 convened the first Nuclear Security Summit (NSS). In his speech in Prague in 2009, Obama explained that nuclear terrorism was the most immediate and dangerous threat to global security; the NSS was part of a wider effort to secure the world’s stockpile of vulnerable nuclear materials.
The NSS has been held every two years since the first conclave.

TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY IS WAKING UP FROM THE LIBERAL DREAM

Thu, 31/03/2016 - 09:07
Original Article Post Date: 
Thu, 31/03/2016

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SELIM KORU
In the first of a two-part series, a Turkish analyst describes his country’s strategic character, and how it is changing through its contact with the Syrian Civil War.

If you follow Iranian foreign policy wonks on Twitter you’ll have come across plenty of photos of Qasim Suleymani. The wiry silver-haired general is often surrounded by a cadre of Shia militants in Iraq, Hezbollah fighters in Syria or Iranian commandos back from special missions. He often has a knowing smile on his lips.

The End is Nigh

Fri, 25/03/2016 - 09:19
Original Article Post Date: 
Fri, 25/03/2016


Yossef Bodansky for Institut für Strategie- Politik- Sicherheits- und Wirtschaftsberatung (ISPSW)
This article was originally published by ISPSW in March 2016.

According to Yossef Bodansky, the mega-trends in the Middle East – namely, the rise of a “Fertile Crescent of Minorities,” the collapse of modern Arab states, and the ascent of tribe-and clan-based local entities in their stead – have reached the point of irreversibility. As a result, he believes Russia will be the big geopolitical winner in the region.

Strategic Engineered Migration as Weapon of War

Thu, 24/03/2016 - 09:11
Original Article Post Date: 
Thu, 24/03/2016

Strategic Engineered Migration as Weapon of War

After reading the title, you may think it is describing the phenomenon that Europe has recently been facing: the hundreds of thousands of refugees, both victims of the hardships of civil wars and opportunists, who are invading the Balkans by land and by sea and then making their way further, trying to reach richer countries like Germany, France and Scandinavia by any means possible.

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