In The News

Refugees in the MENA Region: What Geopolitical Consequences?

Barah Mikail August 7, 2013
Economic chaos, corruption and outright conflict in North Africa and the Middle East have triggered a new wave of refugees – some of whom travel and seek shelter as far away as Australia. More than 1.5 million may have fled just Syria, with another 2.5 million Syrians thought to be displaced inside the country. Failure to address the latest refugee crisis could present serious long-term security...

German Firms Scramble to Boost Data Protection

August 6, 2013
German companies are reviewing procedures on data and communications, rapidly trying to improve security to prevent industrial espionage. Corporate security is already tight in Germany, reports Spiegel, with policies that include executives using disposable phones during travel, putting phones into tin cans during meetings, regularly sweeping corporate planes and conference rooms for bugs, and...

Rise in Violence “Linked to Climate Change”

Rebecca Morelle August 5, 2013
Shifts in temperature or rainfall are correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes, murders and events of conflict or war, suggests researcher Marshall Burke of the University of California, Berkeley, in a study published in Science. Rebecca Morelle, BBC News, reports that the researchers reviewed 60 studies with data spanning hundreds of years: “Their examples include an increase in domestic...

On the Selling of the Egyptian Coup

Ken Silverstein August 1, 2013
More than 250 people have been killed since the Egyptian military deposed President Mohamed Morsi, democratically elected and in power for just a year. “In Egypt, only two forces genuinely possess the ability to rule at the moment: the army, by virtue of the bayonet; or the Muslim Brotherhood, by virtue of the ballot,” argues Ken Silverstein for Harper’s. Both Morsi’s opponents and supporters...

The World as Free-Fire Zone

Fred Kaplan July 31, 2013
The use of drones in warfare can reduce total casualties, but increase cross-border attacks, raising concerns about boundaries and nonchalance over war, even as human operators choose targets and pull triggers. Small, accurate drones are most often used for surveillance or support of ground troops, explains Fred Kaplan for MIT Technology Review, but the “controversy – which persists today – began...

Russia Should Use Own Electronics in Defense Industry: Deputy PM

Alexei Anishchuk July 31, 2013
A former contract worker for the US National Security Agency, now stuck in the Russian airport, has suggested that the US has greater surveillance capabilities than many even in the US had once assumed. Revelations that the US is storing data on telephone calls and could access internet connections have prompted some individuals and countries to pursue preventative measures in other areas. Russia...

US Urged to Adopt Policy Justifying Intervention

Mark Landler July 25, 2013
The doctrine known as “responsibility to protect,” or R2P, compels nations to act when other nations commit atrocities against their own people. But decisions on intervention represent a struggle between conscience and pragmatism. The US applied R2P to justify support for Libyan rebels in 2011, but has hesitated to do the same for Syrian rebels, explains Mark Landler of the New York Times, adding...