The recent election of Pope Francis I (Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Argentine of Italian origin), who comes from the Jesuit order, to become the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the State of Vatican, as well as the circumstances that triggered the unusual decision of his predecessor Benedict XVI …

The current developments in Syria and the evolution of the Iran-inspired Shi’a movements in the region brought to the attention the Shi’a extremism’s expansion, seen by the analysts as a possible new “export of the Islamic Revolution”, or an effort to impose so-called “Mahdi governments” controlled by the Shiite religious …

I. General Aspects The developments following the Arab spring upheavals that brought political instability in most of the countries involved, as well as the growing number of terrorist incidents brought to the attention the process of radicalization that is taking place not only in the Arab countries but is frequently …