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The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?

The images of desperate Afghan citizens trying to leave their country, beyond highlighting a massive human tragedy, may become a symbol of the so-called war on terror. Many of those Afghans already understand the feeling of abandoning their homes, because their families experienced it. They know what happens when foreign …

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Iran and the Taliban after the US fiasco in Afghanistan

The return of Taliban rule over Afghanistan will have significant consequences for the region and international politics more broadly. For the Islamic Republic of Iran, Washington’s Afghanistan fiasco is about more than just the victory of the Taliban; it has been touted as confirmation that U.S. policy in the Islamic …

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Ramping Up Operations Against ‘Apostate Taliban Militia,’ Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Claims Two More Attacks In Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Kunar, Expands Operations In Pakistan

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. Following multiple attacks targeting the “apostate Taliban militia” in Afghanistan,[1] the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Afghanistan, known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), continued to ramp …

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Why Piracy Is a Growing Threat in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea

In early May, a high-speed boat pulled alongside the Rio Mitong, a Panama-flagged cargo vessel, just off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Using ladders to board the ship, a group of assailants kidnapped two crew members, taking them back to the shore, where they subsequently held them for ransom. Another …

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Russia’s Naval Base in Sudan Opens a Long-Sought Gateway to the Red Sea

Following Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s approval last month of a new naval base to be built on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, official Kremlin statements have billed the facility as a logistics center that will be defensive in nature—for principal use as a resupply station for Russian warships. In spite …

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Will Taiwan’s Dongsha Islands Be the Next Crimea?

Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine prompted much international outrage but little meaningful action. President Vladimir Putin was able to forcefully redraw his country’s borders, shrugging off the international sanctions that the United States and European Union imposed in response. Putin’s success augmented “the belief among some …

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Turkey and Egypt Open the Door to a Diplomatic Thaw

In mid-March, Turkey and Egypt confirmed they’d had their first diplomatic contact since breaking off relations in 2013. Though the talks were described by Egyptian sources as preliminary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, “Contacts at the diplomatic level have started.” The thaw comes after a decade …

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The Persistence of Borders in a Globalized World

Back in 1990, when the Soviet bloc was crumbling into new nations, Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese organizational theorist and management consultant, had the audacity to suggest that humankind was on the cusp of a new “borderless world,” in a book of the same name. Ohmae’s goal was mainly to sketch …

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How a submarine deal sparked a major diplomatic crisis

Australia’s move to ditch a $66bn submarine deal has spiralled into an unprecedented diplomatic row between Western allies. Australia’s decision to cancel a multibillion-dollar order for French submarines in favour of American and British technology has sparked a diplomatic row of unprecedented proportions between longtime Western allies. The French foreign …

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Afghans who fled Panjshir: ‘Everything can change by the hour’

As resistance forces continue to battle the Taliban on Afghanistan’s last war front, residents who fled the province say there is no clear winner yet. Since the Taliban claimed “complete control” over the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan’s northeast earlier this month, the group has been accused of “widespread atrocities”, forcing …

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