Last night the G7 concluded its summit in Cornwall with a commitment to tackle illicit finance and corruption. In reaction, Tom Keatinge, Director of RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, said: ‘We welcome the inclusion of illicit finance in the G7 communiqué, putting corrupt actors and kleptocrats worldwide …
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A Renaissance for Strategy? The NATO Summit 2021
NATO countries must undergo a renaissance in the way they collectively develop and execute strategy. The forthcoming Alliance summit is the right venue to start. The heads of state and government of NATO countries are coming together in Brussels early next week to take the Alliance forward in the face …
Read More »Changing the rules of the game: Reforming the party system in Iraq
The roots of the current political system: A historical view Speaking on the eve of U.S. forces’ entry into Iraq in March 2003, then-U.S. President George W. Bush said that one of the reasons for the war was to “liberate” Iraq’s people and to help them achieve a “united, stable, …
Read More »Jihadist Groups Exploiting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The eruption of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in May 2021 brought the Palestinian issue to the forefront of Arab affairs, albeit temporarily.[1] Against this backdrop, it is interesting to consider how terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda (AQ) reacted to this latest chapter of …
Read More »It’s Now or Never: Lebanon Policy Conference Key Takeaways
Over the course of two weeks in May and June, the Middle East Institute hosted its inaugural Lebanon policy conference in collaboration with the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) and LIFE. This series of events brought together leading diplomats, policymakers, economists, development practitioners, and think tank professionals from the …
Read More »Algeria’s election reinforces political divisions
The June 12 election for the National Assembly, the lower house of the Algerian parliament, shows that the country is stuck between, on the one side, a political system led by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and backed by the army that rejects deep change and, on the other side, a population …
Read More »Khamenei Wants a Nuclear Deal Before Rouhani Leaves
This week, which will see Iran’s presidential elections, was also supposed to mark the finale of nuclear talks among Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the European Union in Vienna. But a new deal is unlikely to be reached by Friday. The question now is what to make of …
Read More »NATO declares China as global security challenge
The NATO brings to mind the classic paradigm of someone all dressed up and nowhere to go. It has to constantly reinvent a reason for its existence. The NATO is a lucrative hunting ground for the American arms industry. The bigger the NATO’s threat perceptions, the greater the scope for …
Read More »Biden Should Think Big on the U.S.-EU Trade Agenda
When U.S. President Joe Biden participates in his first summit between the United States and the European Union tomorrow in Brussels, he should keep the focus on the big picture. While easing bilateral irritants would improve the tone of relations in the short term, the real test will be whether …
Read More »An Anxious Erdogan Tries to Make Nice With the West
Weeks before U.S. President Joe Biden met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Erdogan vowed that the meeting would be transformative. In a virtual gathering with American investors last month, he predicted that the encounter would “herald a new era.” It was no …
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