... United Nations Security Council. This has left many in the west wondering: how can any country support such a monster?
There is no doubt that President Assad has blood on his hands – lots of it. So did Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Both these dictators were endorsed and armed by western powers – including the United States – before they were vilified and deposed. If western condemnation of murderous dictators has one rationalization, it is "better late than ...
In 2014, over 180,000 Libyan refugees are known to have attempted to cross the Mediterranean, with about 2,000 either having
drowned
or died because of dangerous sailing conditions. Although they are only approximate, these figures testify to at least two indisputable facts,...
Will Libya become another Somalia? According to Italian Interior Ministry, the Islamic State has already taken control of ports and maritime assets in key Libyan territories, prompting real concerns that such actions could lead to a boom in piracy and maritime ...
... leadership. Undoubtedly, Tehran didn’t like this decision, but this is hardly reason enough to explain the restoration of the contract with Iran for the S-300 as a way to sweeten the pill.
Also unusual was the Kremlin’s activity in the Libyan context, which many already thought was a lost battle for Moscow. On April 14-15, and for the second time this year, Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni traveled to Moscow. He stated that the main purpose of his visit was to persuade Russia ...
First, a de facto civil war in that country and rampant violence perpetrated by gangs and irregular militias make any economic projects in Libya very risky.
Second, Moscow reasonably fears that a sizable portion of the nation’s new political elite views Russia as an enemy due to the latter’s critical attitude to the NATO operation against the former regime.
Third, the prevailing ...
Chaos in Libya
The fall of Muammar Kaddafi has hurled Libya into the chaos of a three-years-long struggle between liberal forces supported by the army and Islamist parties propped up by
former rebels
. Five successive governments have fruitlessly been trying ...
... its military presence throughout its remote southern desert regions. Senior government officials speaking to the media described the move as a “sovereign decision.”
Niger shares common borders with Algeria and Mali. It sits just below Libya and to the east of Mali.
Algeria has been experiencing problems in the refugee camps controlled by the Polisario Front and located in its remote southeastern Tindouf region. Some news reports claim the camps, which contain upwards of 95,000 refugees,...
... governments who engage in WMD commerce to use it as a bargaining chip for other objectives. In spite of four Nobel Peace Prizes (Bunche, Arafat, Rabin, Peres), one of the big drivers of terrorism continues to be the destruction of the State of Israel. Libya and Palestine are cases where opportunistic leaders have helped drive that issue. While Washington spent around $3 trillion on its decade long war in Iraq the four decade presence of Moammar Gaddafi and Yassir Arafat on the world scene has probably ...
In light of the recent developments in Syria and the apparently imminent US military intervention, the blog will take a short break from its relatively academic style and its thematic focus in order to brainstorm and share some thoughts on the broader picture of what is happening in the geopolitical arena of the region. Dangerous Double Standards Bashar al-Assad has reportedly used chemical weapons to attack, essentially, his own people. The first, logically obvious question is why would Assad essentially...
... there is a strong possibility that military intervention can only make the situation in Syria worse, and can end up bringing more harm than good.
The prospects for a successful military intervention in Syria are much less promising than they were in Libya. According to the estimates of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in 2009 Syria’s military force was four times larger than Libya’s and it was much better equipped. Moreover, Syrian opposition is not unified, like it ...
