Tradition and development in West Africa: A critical look at some contemporary issues in Ghana and Nigeria Abstract This study examines underdevelopment of West Africa through a qualitative methodological approach. In explaining the challenges pitting the economies of West African states, modernization and dependency theories for analysis was adopted…

The historic first meeting between a sitting US President and North Korean Leader was an auspicious first step that provides a good foundation on which to build substantive agreements in the future. Although the summit itself did not produce any dramatic achievement it is nevertheless an important landmark in the effort to rid the world of nuclear…

IDEN A is not John McAfee but of equivalent substantive stature. This is the pre-Amazon calculation. The future of block chain will be known as BA and AA — before and after Amazon. It is not clear if PayPal, among others, sees the threat as well as the possibility of burying Amazon.IDEN A has provided both Impact scores and probability scores. A…

_ Yuri Kofner, head, Eurasian sector, Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, analytic, OECD-HSE Research Centre, Higher School of Economics. Interviewed by Anna Fedko for “The Diplomat’s Notes”. Moscow, 29 May 2018.On May 29, 2018, the Day of Eurasian Integration, the Higher School of Economics hosted the international…

The upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping is the main political event of the year in terms of Russian-Chinese relations. On the agenda is implementation of the agreement to reach a $200 bln bilateral trade level by 2020, the task that was assigned by the leaders of two countries. The key precondition for the success of this agreement…

The first-ever informal Indo-Russian summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on May 21 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's keynote address at Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore on June 1 should be seen as New Delhi's manifestations of its policy of maintaining India's strategic autonomy at a crucial juncture in the global politics when an old world order…

The USA and Russia are facing the most dangerous security crisis in recent years for their nations and the world at large. The global implications of such crisis are also alarming. While the last century was labelled as the nuclear age, the current one has been characterized as ballistic missile defense age and as a potential space-based arms age. Its…

This book (essay) is a double-spaced screed, not to be confused with the lengthier and more substantive but no less mendacious Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror (Penguin, 2017)[i] in which the author told many lies as part of justifying the unjustifiable: mass warrantless surveillance on the US public and promiscuous…

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is applicable on both international and non-international armed conflicts. Given the Kashmir issue, this law, being the major component of international law, has a wider scope and germane applicability on India despite well-staged encounters and operations by its armed forces. The status of Kashmir and associated…

On 23 May 2018 Politico featured a story, “Pompeo: No ‘deep state’ at State or CIA,”[1] in which the Secretary of State, a few months ago and ever so briefly the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA), is quoted as being dismissive of the term “deep state,” and its applicability to the CIA or the Department of State. The author…

_ Yuri Kofner, head, Eurasian Sector, CCEIS, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, analyst of the OECD – HSE Research Centre. The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the official position of the HSE. Moscow, 3 June 2018.On May 14, 2018, at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, i.e. the summit of the…

AbstractSince the breakup of Yugoslavia and the USSR, the "colour revolutions" and the "Arab Spring" might have contributed to trivialize the events of February 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. It would nevertheless, be neglecting the importance of geopolitical factors involved in the Euromaidan and largely explaining the consequences of this…