In The News

An America Adrift

Paul Kennedy September 9, 2011
The 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a time of reflection, and historian Paul Kennedy analyzes the American responses and mood of the past decade. After 9/11, the US quickly invaded Afghanistan, putting the Taliban on the run. Then in March 2003, the US invaded Iraq, intent on deposing dictator Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Kennedy offers anecdotal...

The World After 9/11 – Part II

Stephen Tankel September 8, 2011
Al Qaeda made its mark by the dramatic 9/11 attacks, but it’s not alone in developing transnational networks striving for global jihad. This two-part YaleGlobal series analyzes terrorist threats which since 9/11 have sought to end modernization and multicultural societies across Asia and promote inter-religious conflagration. The second and final article analyzes the goals of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or...

Fall of Gaddafi: Policy Challenge for China and Russia

James M. Dorsey September 7, 2011
As rebels organize to govern Libya, global powers pay their respects to new rulers of a nation ranking ninth in the world with oil reserves. NATO supported overthrowing the Gaddafi regime, while Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa abstained from voting on Resolution 1973, approved in March, authorizing UN member states to protect Libya’s civilians. Now abstainers are scrambling to win...

The World After 9/11 – Part I

Bruce Riedel September 6, 2011
Ten years ago, a small group of men launched unprecedented terrorist attacks on icons of American power. The dramatic attack by Al Qaeda ushered in an era of seemingly unending war between organized states and shadowy groups. This YaleGlobal series examines the continuing reverberations from the 9/11 attacks, which lured the US into long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US has successfully...

Torture in Bahrain Aided by Nokia Siemens

Vernon Silver, Ben Elgin August 31, 2011
Torture victims in Bahrain report that interrogators confronted them with detailed transcripts of mobile phone conversations. Surveillance equipment in Bahrain was sold by Siemens AG and maintained by Nokia Siemens Networks and Trovicor, according to company employees who requested anonymity. “The use of the system for interrogation in Bahrain illustrates how Western-produced surveillance...

Ethiopia “Using Aid as Weapon of Oppression”

August 29, 2011
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describes the seven nations – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda – of the Horn of Africa, as one of the most food-insecure regions in the world. A team of journalists from the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism traveled through Ethiopia, posing as tourists, and discovered communities allegedly...

Globalizing Insurgency in Somalia

Christopher Anzalone August 23, 2011
The Somali Al Qaeda–linked insurgent movement al-Shabab has ruled most of southern and central Somalia, including the capital city of Mogadishu, since mid-2008. Originating as the most radical wing of the military arm of the Islamic Courts Union coalition, the movement delivered relative law and order and peace to Somalia in 2006. Since then, al-Shabab has moved ideologically closer to the...