NIGERIA 2017: THE BOKO HARAM LEGACY AND THE NIGER DELTA INSURGENCIES (case study) In the last days of 2016 it was announced that Nigeria’s army has captured Boko Haram’s last enclave in the Sambisa forest (Borno state, north-east of Nigeria). According to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, the capture marked …
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THE EU ENLARGEMENT AFTER BREXIT Case Study: the Western Balkans
Among the complex consequences of United Kingdom’s recent decision to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit), one of the main problems for the Union’s leaders – indeed, a component of the EU’s future – is the EU enlargement process, notably the accession of the six countries of the Western Balkans …
Read More »‘BREXIT’: REGIONAL AND GEOPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCES
The “United Kingdom European Union membership referendum”, also known as the EU referendum, which is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on 23 June 2016, is seen by many local and international observers as an important moment in the history of both the United Kingdom and …
Read More »THE “INTERMARIUM”: A CENTURY-OLD SECURITY DOCTRINE REVISITED
Recent developments a) On February 2, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter unveiled plans to add more heavy weapons and armored vehicles to prepositioned stocks in Eastern Europe in order to give the Pentagon two brigade sets worth of heavy equipment on NATO’s eastern frontier. The White House plans to pay …
Read More »DAESH: FROM THE RED SEA TO THE ATLANTIC; CASE STUDY: SOMALIA
Born out of the Iraqi War in 2003, Daesh has stretched across the Middle East and into northern-Africa where today only the Mediterranean Sea separates the militants from Europe. It has conquered regions of Iraq, Syria and Libya while building a strong support structure in Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s Sinai Province, …
Read More »FROM SYKES-PICOT TO OBAMA-PUTIN: POWER ACTORS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Case Study: The migration wave and the Schengen agreement Most of the observers of the Middle East have become used to the talk about a new Middle East. They did so after the Camp David accords, the Oslo Agreements and most recently the Arab Spring. In the end, it resulted …
Read More »CHINA: TOWARDS A SUPERPOWER STATUS — Case Study: The Chinese Influence in Africa
The recent Group of Seven (G7) summit meeting in Schloss Elmau (Germany) took place in a global context marked not only by the proliferation of crises – from the Russian seizure of Crimea and the advent of the Islamic State to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and heightened tensions …
Read More »SHIFTING SANDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A CLOSER LOOK AT DAESH
The recent Mediterranean migrant boat disasters, which highlighted the dimensions of the people-smuggling originating from war-torn Libya and aiming to Europe, as well as the savage killings’ video released at the same time by DAESH[1], also in Libya, shed a new light over the new activities of this terrorist group. …
Read More »“NEW” EUROPE(S?): FACING AN “OLD-STYLE” RUSSIA
The recent evolutions in Europe are marked by the political crisis generated by the development in Ukraine, and by the economic crisis (itself turned into a political one) that affects most visibly Greece, but also other European states. Analysts see them as indicators of a geopolitical shift generated by what …
Read More »THE DIGITAL (COMING OF) AGE
The growing number of political victories obtained with the help of the social media, as well as the revelations about the complex manipulation processes for which they might be used, the launching of the “digital citizenship” and the extending use of the Bitcoin, the year-end crisis generated by the cyber …
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