October, 2021

• 24 October

  What Can the United Nations Do About Counterterrorism?

  

  In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United Nations Security Council moved swiftly and laid the keystone of an international framework of counterterrorism efforts. Twenty years later, it’s past time to rethink all of them. Back then, the Security Council obliged states to deny terrorists safe …

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• 24 October

  Keep Your Eyes on Afghanistan’s ISIS-K

  

  The terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, provided one of the last searing images of the United States’ 20-year counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan when two of its suicide bombers killed thirteen U.S. troops at Kabul’s international airport, the deadliest day for U.S. armed forces …

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• 24 October

  Sanctions on Taliban Compound Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Difficulties

  

  The Biden administration is trying to work around longstanding terrorism-related sanctions to facilitate the delivery of aid to the struggling Afghan population. Despite the issuance of sanctions exceptions, Taliban rule in Afghanistan will cause many global banks to refuse to finance commercial transactions with the Afghan private sector. Whether U.S. …

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• 24 October

  Taliban is the winner at Moscow conference

  

  The Moscow meeting of ten regional states and the Taliban officials on Wednesday has produced an outcome that by far exceeds expectations. The salience of the consensus opinion is four-fold, as reflected in the joint statement issued after the event: regional recognition that Taliban government is a compelling “reality”; it …

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• 24 October

  Iranian, Turkish FMs Discuss Situation In Afghanistan

  The foreign ministers of Iran and Turkey talked about collective efforts to ensure stability and fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, as Tehran is going to host a ministerial meeting of the Afghan neighbors next week. In a telephone conversation on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Turkish counterpart …

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• 24 October

  Iraq’s Elections: Has Iran Lost Enough Ground To Make A Difference? – OpEd

  Iraq’s election on October 10 saw the lowest voter turnout of any of its six polls since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. All the same the results met one of the major demands of the young activists who had pressed for early elections, and then urged a voter …

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• 24 October

  Ethiopian Government Airstrike Hits Tigray Regional Capital

  Ethiopian forces carried out an airstrike Friday on the city of Mekelle, their fifth on the Tigray regional capital since Monday. There were no immediate reports of casualties following Friday’s airstrike, which witnesses say hit a farmer’s field near a fenced off area on the eastern side of Mekelle University. …

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• 24 October

  Lingering Topics: Ukraine And Russiagate – OpEd

  A loose analogy considers the wait and see approach concerning cancer. In a number of instances, the old school method is to do surgery before or after chemoradiation. Why do surgery, if the chemoradiation (by all accounts) has eliminated the cancer? Cancer related surgery can often lead to some quality …

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• 24 October

  Europe’s Two Greatest Powers Closed For Business At Crucial Time – OpEd

  Not long ago, an archaeologist friend of mine and I came to a striking conclusion: We did our intellectual work entirely backwards from one another. He, with almost nothing to go on beyond shards of pottery, had to extrapolate a world from mere fragments. I, blessed or burdened (take your …

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• 23 October

  Iraq’s Election Raises More Questions Than Answers

  

  Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia cleric whose Mahdi Army followers battled U.S. forces during the years of the occupation, made big gains in Iraq’s parliamentary election on October 10. His victory could pose problems for the United States and Iran. But despite the Sadrist List’s electoral success, it is not a …

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