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…

One single Muslim convert has just succeeded in paralyzing the  executive and legislative branch of Canada.  The parliament building has been locked down for many hours.  A Canadian soldier has been killed.
On the same day  is another news item of concern; the car bomb killing of an American citizen and his child in Jerusalem…

An important prior question needs to be addressed before arriving at the question of whether democracy should have the same meaning in every country. We need to ask what is meant by "democracy?" If taken seriously, as meaning "rule by the people," democracy doesn't exist anywhere. In no modern state do the people actually rule…

The Ukrainian crisis is currently the leading factor weighing on Western international relations, with the EU being caught in an unstable position, torn between the U.S.A.'s pressure on one side, and the economic interdependency with the Russian Federation on the other. This article examines the current state of the issue from a diplomatic…