DNI General James Clapper’s mission to Pyongyang on the eve of President Obama ‘visit to Beijing, sounds mysterious.  Yes, the release of two American prisoners from a North Korean jail was a good thing, yet we must learn more about the Obama…

On July 3, 1988 Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down over the Persian Gulf by the US Navy cruiser USS Vincennes.  All 290 people on board were killed.  The civilian airliner was shot down in Iranian airspace while flying a regularly scheduled flight on its registered flight path.  The incident occurred more than 10,000 km away from the…

Throughout the history being unleashed diplomacy has always s been a topic that evoked deep respect from many people. As well as the world that existed  20-30 years ago contrasts sharply with the modern one.
 
Firstly, it is connected with the general system of instability, existing in the modern world. One witnesses it judging by the…

The recent impasses in the UNSC is another proof for the shakiness of attempts to build a centralized powerful institution`for conflict prevention. In other words, Security Council keeps failing to act in the sense of common good, it fails even in bargaining. My concern here is to show that a reform of the UNSC wouldn't make any difference, in…

The Security Council is rightfully considered the most powerful and influential body of the United Nations. The authority granted by Chapter VII of the UN Charter allows it to pronounce universally binding decisions and authorize all types of conflict-preventing missions, including armed military interventions as a means of last resort to mitigate the…

By Zhyldyz Oskonbaeva (RIEAS Senior Advisor & Eurasian Liaison)

On a number of levels, the situation between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the ethnic Kurds of Syria, Iraq and Turkey is creating a power shift that no one is discussing. In this article, I will explain why: 1) The Kurds have an unprecedented opportunity to achieve…

Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea has overthrown the maritime context in the Black Sea region. The full sovereignty recovered by Moscow over the Crimean peninsula is likely to tremendously sustain Russia’s maritime power in the region and beyond, in the Mediterranean[1]. However, the lack of local maintenance infrastructures as well…

.As the mid-term 2014 elections are upon us, and 2016 looms, this blog is dedicated to the memory of my late, Russologist colleague, U.S. General William E. Odom. Thus it´s title bears his adagio on the propensities of America´s left and right, frequently repeated by him to my former students at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in the…

Patrick Adams (Strategic Analyst & RIEAS Research Associate)
A victory for the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria would have a wide range of economic, social and political consequences. Economically, there would be a significant and damaging effect on the world's oil supply. Socially, not only would Iraq and Syria be affected but any…

Quentin de Pimodan
(Author based in the Middle East)

Al Baghdadi's major strategic failure has been his choice of the Fertile Crescent as the region for the establishment of his Khilafa. His dream of reestablishing a Sunni caliphate with roots in Iraq and Syria will eventually be crushed by the field's realities and only exposes his own…

A strain of the Ebola virus has killed 5,000 people in a handful of West African nations with Mali the latest addition to the list. Meanwhile, an Ebola strain has spread to the United States, Western Europe and possibly elsewhere.
 
Turning the fear factor into a pandemic greater than Ebola itself, the Washington Post on October 25th, published…

 
This work is about how a specific conceptualization of ‘culture’ in intelligence studies, amongst scholars at first but subsequently practitioners as well, has taken on too powerful a role, one that has become too restrictive in its impact on thinking about other intelligence communities, especially non-Western ones. This…