TimeLine Layout

May, 2021

  • 2 May

    DEMOCRACY DIGEST: CZECHS BRING ‘BALANCE’ TO DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH RUSSIA

    The deterioration in Czech-Russian relations reached a nadir this week as Prague ordered scores of Russian ‘diplomats’ to leave. Starting a new job is always stressful – it always takes a few weeks to get your feet under the table. Much sympathy must go to Jakub Kulhanek then, who was …

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  • 2 May

    Blinken cautions Turkey against future S-400 purchases

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that President Joe Biden’s recent recognition of the Armenian genocide should not have come as a surprise. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Turkey shouldn’t make any additional purchases of Russian weaponry, warning that doing so could provoke further US sanctions. …

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  • 2 May

    Turkish forces in fresh offensive against PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan

    The latest Turkish military operation against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan comes at a time when Ankara finds itself increasingly under strain, both on the domestic front and in its frosty ties with Washington. The Turkish military has launched a critically timed ground and air offensive against Kurdish militants in …

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  • 2 May

    Cyprus unification talks falter as Turkey clings to two-state idea

    Talks to reunite Cyprus have again failed to unblock a four-year pause in negotiations over the future of the Eastern Mediterranean island. The latest attempt to lay the ground for the resumption of talks to reunite Cyprus failed after a three-day summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a news conference …

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  • 1 May

    Vienna Nuclear Talks Nearing Successful Conclusion, Sides Say

    Iran and world powers including the United States concluded their fourth round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna on Wednesday, as the sides look to secure an agreement enabling a mutual return to compliance with the abandoned 2015 pact. Russia’s representative to the talks, which began in early May, said all …

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April, 2021

  • 30 April

    Ending Yemen’s Multilayered War

    For U.S. officials who worked under former President Barack Obama, many of whom are now beginning or contemplating jobs in Joe Biden’s administration, the war in Yemen casts a long shadow. What started on their watch as a primarily internal power struggle has since metastasized into a messy and multilayered …

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  • 30 April

    Why the World’s Newest Country Has Only Known Conflict

    Few nations have seen their dreams and hopes dashed as quickly and ruthlessly as South Sudan. A mere two years after thousands thronged the streets of the capital, Juba, to celebrate independence from Sudan’s autocratic rule, the country descended into a brutal civil war. The fallout between President Salva Kiir …

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  • 30 April

    As Right-Wing Extremism Rises, Jihadism Still Persists

    Six separate terrorist attacks took place in Europe between late September and late November of last year—three in France, and one each in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All six attacks were inspired by Salafi-jihadist ideology, which is, and will remain, a persistent terrorism threat to Europe and elsewhere in the …

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  • 30 April

    Al-Qaida Is Diminished, but Don’t Write Its Obituary Just Yet

    Rumors began swirling last fall that al-Qaida chieftain Ayman al-Zawahiri had died of natural causes. With no confirmation, counterterrorism analysts and long-time al-Qaida watchers weighed in with various assessments of what it would mean for the terrorist organization if it had indeed lost its leader. Just last week, al-Qaida’s official …

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  • 30 April

    Europe Has Spent Years Trying to Prevent ‘Chaos’ in the Sahel. It Failed

    “The terrorists are quick,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after a summit with the leaders of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou in May. “This is why we have to be quicker, so that we can beat them.” What happens in the Sahel, the vast sub-Saharan …

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