Asia & Pacific
Afghanistan
With the AUKUS pact, the US has opted to snub some of its European partners
In the nearly nine months since he took office, it has become apparent that the US and European Union will not immediately experience a...
Afghanistan
Will Central Asia serve as Europe’s bridge to Afghanistan?
Just over one month on from the fall of Kabul, Europe is still grasping for answers to the question of how to engage in...
Archive
EU and US can close the climate finance gap together, says von der Leyen
While every country has a responsibility, major economies do have a special duty to the least developed and most vulnerable countries to tackle climate...
Afghanistan
What are Turkey’s ambitions in Afghanistan after the US’ withdrawal?
After the United States finished its withdrawal from the two-decade war in Afghanistan on August 31, regional powers remain at work trying to understand...
Afghanistan
The West must apply the lessons of Afghanistan and Tunisia to Libya
Twenty years have now passed since 9/11. Since then, differing ideas of the importance of democracy in Middle Eastern policy have dominated the foreign...
Afghanistan
After Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, TAPI is more of a pipe dream
The regime change in Afghanistan and the removal of Western political influence will probably make the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline even...
Afghanistan
On 9/11, it’s time for a reckoning and reflection of decades of failed US national security policy
A reckoning with America’s failed national security policy is long overdue.Our calamitous misadventures in the Middle East and the global financial collapse of 2008...
Afghanistan
What next after 20 years of war in Afghanistan? Anatol Lieven on the U.S.’ legacy and the Taliban’s rise
On August 30, 2021, a C-17 transport plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, signaling the end of America’s longest war....
Afghanistan
Enough of the Durban depravity
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the so-called “World Conference Against Racism”, otherwise known as Durban I. The 2001 conference was to be...
Afghanistan
Europe willingly forfeited a leadership role in Afghanistan
If Winston Churchill were alive today, I imagine he might have said something like “Never in the history of human conflict have so few...
Afghanistan
Afghanistan 2021: An extremist ‘stammtisch’
Everybody has a favorite bar or coffee house. A place you can go to seek solace or connect with old friends. In some cases,...
Archive
CATL brings EV battery technologies and manufacturing to Europe
The association of European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers, EUROBAT, announced on September 2 that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) has joined its...
Afghanistan
Economic progress and political reforms give post-Soviet space reason to celebrate
On August 30th, Kazakhstan celebrated one of the country’s most important holidays—Constitution Day, which commemorates the adoption of the 1995 constitution which confirmed the...
Afghanistan
How Erdogan will “manage” the Afghan refugee crisis
Images of Afghan refugees scrambling to escape Kabul following the Taliban’s seizure of power will haunt the international community for decades. According to the...
Afghanistan
Mikheil Saakashvili – The post-Soviet space’s once and future buffoon
It isn't every day you find yourself talking to a major figure of recent history, especially not one who has staged both a successful...
Analysis
An EU diplomatic ‘bâdgir’ in Vienna: The Iran nuclear deal 2.0
When things get hot, you look to cool them down. Persian culture is too familiar with heat with scorching Middle East temperatures. One of...
Afghanistan
An Afghan coda
Very rarely, if ever, do I ever write in the first person when offering an opinion or analysis of either a current or past...
Afghanistan
The EU is nothing but a feckless spectator in the unfolding Afghan crisis
The surprising speed by which the Taliban seized control, with relative ease, of the whole of Afghanistan is a major geopolitical debacle for the...
Afghanistan
A monster miracle from a cave
In the history of sport, there have been many unforgettable victories. True testaments of teams achieving the unthinkable. The 1980 Winter Olympics men’s hockey...
Afghanistan
Russia and China poised to gain influence in Afghanistan
Amidst the chaotic scenes that ushered in the Taliban’s take over of the Afghan capital Kabul, coupled with the West's harried exodus from the...
Afghanistan
The legacy of failure in Afghanistan starts in 1979, not 2001
A decade ago, John Lamberton Harper, a professor of US Foreign Policy and European Studies at Johns Hopkins in Bologna, Italy published an indispensable...
Afghanistan
US Balkan allies to host Afghan refugee processing operations
Even before the Taliban had completed its occupation of Kabul, American allies Albania and Kosovo told Washington that they would serve as transit countries...
Afghanistan
Afghanistan – early lessons and even more questions
The bitterly divided government in Kabul is no more after President Ashraf Ghani and some 80 of his ministers and senior government officials fled...
Africa
As UN issues stark climate warning, wildfires spread across Med region
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a stark warning, noting that Climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying. The report,...
Afghanistan
A viable – and perhaps the only – path to lasting peace in Afghanistan
As each day goes by, the Taliban’s forces edge closer to controlling all of Afghanistan. In the first week of August, the Taliban swept...
Afghanistan
Afghanistan and the Great Powers
Can Afghanistan's never-ending internal conflict be resolved by the efforts of great and regional powers that have numerous conflicting strategic and global goals? Is...
Archive
Ice station Arctic: Rosatom weighs underwater impact for nuke facilities
Russia’s state atomic corporation Rosatom and Moscow State University’s Marine Research Centre have signed a cooperation agreement, aiming to make possible pilot projects for...
Afghanistan
France has a generals problem: Why there’s a fray in civilian-military relations
The sensitive question of civilian control of the armed forces is one which Western democracies like the United States and France must continue to...
Archive
EU to counter cyber threats
Europe needs to be the driving force in securing infrastructure of core services against hybrid attacks, including ransomware, and work with NATO to build...
Analysis
Erdogan’s visit to the Turkish-occupied northern district of Cyprus
Whatever Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expected to come out of his visit to the occupied part of Cyprus – on the day that...
Analysis
If Europe is serious about fighting antisemitism, it must skip Durban 20
Countries are lining up to declare they will not attend the20th anniversary of the UN’s notorious 2001 World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban,...
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: No peace without a clear vision
Peace is the absence of war, while war is the absence of peace! A negotiated peace in Afghanistan presents a number of challenges. The...
Afghanistan
Making sense of the Italy-UAE rift
Earlier this month the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ordered the withdrawal of all Italian aircraft and personnel from its Al Minhad Air Force Base...
Archive
EU climate policy to boost energy security
PRAGUE – The day before the EU Commission presented its ‘Fit for 55’ package proposals in Brussels, the Czech Republic’s Deputy Foreign Minister for...
Afghanistan
When the “New Middle East” meets the “New Europe”
Middle Eastern experts have commented widely on the “new” foreign policy of the United Arab Emirates. Many of these same commentators have gone so...
Afghanistan
From Vienna to Tripoli, the Muslim Brotherhood’s impact is felt on both sides of the Mediterranean
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has recently undertaken a number of legislative initiatives that target Islamist groups and movements, which are active within the country,...
Afghanistan
A broken migration system
Turkey and Greece are both transit countries for migrants on their way to Germany and wealthy destinations in northern Europe. Migrants are resilient. Many...
Archive
Fighting impunity in the 21st-century
In 2006, Thomas Lubanga was the first person to be convicted as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court. For the first time...
Afghanistan
Tribal truths: The wounds of the US’ Afghanistan exit
As a land heavily influenced by tribal practices, an Afghan proverb stating, “The wound of the sword will heal, but not that of the...
Archive
China tensions, Iran nuclear talks support oil price hike
Oil prices traded close to a three-year high on June 24, supported by geopolitical tensions, including China and Iran, falling US inventories and prospects...
Archive
Charged up EU takes on China in battery battle
BRATISLAVA - The European Union has attracted massive investment along the battery value chain, boosting its energy and raw materials independence, as the EU...
Archive
The last party in the oil market
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major crude producers led by Russia, a group so-called OPEC+, agreed on June 1...
Archive
No discounts on the EU’s fundamental values
Alexander Schallenberg has been Austria's Federal Minister for European and International Affairs in the second Sebastian Kurz government since January 2020. He previously served...
Australia
EU Space Agency’s next shot: Pow, right to the Moon!
After working with NASA on designing a human habitation on Mars as part of the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, international design practice Hassell will...
Archive
The West must find its spine
I usually take the greatest satisfaction in having been proved right, whether it's a case of 'I told you the turning to the hotel...
Analysis
Democracies must hold their companies to higher standards in China
Earlier this month, the New York Times published the findings of its multi-year investigation into how Apple has risked Chinese customers’ data and the...
Asia & Pacific
The consequences of Myanmar’s coup
Renowned writer William Gaddis said, “Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.” Myanmar (Burma) and its citizens have long suffered the effects of an unstable...
Afghanistan
Turkey: A state sponsor of terrorism?
Turkey functions like a state-sponsor of terrorism (SST), fueling Islamist extremism domestically and deploying jihadist mercenaries to Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Listing Turkey as...
China
Legalizing Holocaust denial 2.0
More and more right-wing extremist agitators are cavorting on Telegram. They do not even shy away from calls to murder Jews, but there must...
Archive
US wants Iran nuke deal reinstated, but tied to safeguards
US President Joe Biden says that restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as 'the Iran nuclear deal', must be followed...
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