In The News

Dockyard Attackers Planned to Hijack Navy Frigate

Fahim Zaman and Naziha Syed Ali September 17, 2014
Extremists can sign up for military service and bide their time, as suggested by a September 6th attempted hijack of a navy frigate in Karachi for an unstated purpose. The Pakistani government resisted releasing details, reports Dawn, perhaps because 17 serving navy personnel, including a senior officer, allegedly participated, using rocket launchers, assault rifles and hand-grenades. The Dawn...

Europe's Deadly Borders: An Inside Look at EU's Shameful Immigration Policy

Maximilian Popp September 16, 2014
European nations fiercely protect their borders, and Frontex is the continent’s border agency. “But now the civil war in Syria is creating millions of new refugees, and the next exodus is beginning in Iraq, as the terrorist group Islamic State continues to make inroads into the country,” writes Maximilian Popp for Spiegel Online. Popp notes that EU policies have not changed since the tragic 2013...

War in Ukraine Exposes Russia’s Weakness

Chris Miller September 16, 2014
The Eurasian Union, as conceived by Russia, was supposed to rival the European Union as a trade and economic force. “Most notable about the Eurasian Union is not the geopolitical vision that motivates it, but how badly the entire project has gone,” argues Chris Miller, a PhD candidate at Yale University and a research associate with the Hoover Institution. Russian aggression is unnerving former...

Heading Off a Bigger Ebola Catastrophe

Scott Gottlieb and Tevi Troy September 15, 2014
Ebola is spreading rapidly through African communities and devastating economies. Advanced nations can prevent the spread beyond West Africa by organizing intense research efforts and development of vaccines, encouraging donations for the prevention effort, and mandating screening efforts while maintaining open borders. Paradoxically, allowing open borders reduces fear. Otherwise, the infected...

Longtime Rivals Look to Team Up to Confront ISIS

Tim Arango September 11, 2014
Longtime adversaries – the United States and Iran, Kurds and Turks – are teaming up to defeat the self-declared Islamic State. Iraqis who once insisted on complete US withdrawal from Iraq now plead for swift intervention. Not one nation recognizes IS, also known as ISIS and ISIL, as a state, but the brutal group has a formidable military, attracts extremists from around the globe, and controls...

Obama's Legal Rationale for ISIS Strikes

Spencer Ackerman September 11, 2014
With a new Iraqi government in place, urging the United States to intervene against the Islamic State, and wide public support at home, US President Barack Obama announced plans to wage air strikes into Syrian territory against the terrorist group. He will not wait for congressional approval other than the $500 million in funding, instead rely on the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force “...

China's Island Factory

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes September 9, 2014
Since 2012, China’s Communist Party has regarded the South China Sea as a “core national interest” – a list that has also included Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. Using its large cash reserve, labor and skills, China is constructing new islands on at least five submerged reefs in the South China Sea to support its territorial claims, reports Rupert Wingfield-Hayes for BBC News. The Philippines Navy...