International Relations and Security

Embed from Getty Images Police brutality and the impunity of the security forces, though far from the only cause, were a major catalyst of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010-11. In Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi’s humiliating encounters with local police led him to light himself on fire. In Alexandria, Egypt, Khaled Mohamed Said was […]

Embed from Getty Images In late September, the largest hospital on the rebel-held side of Aleppo was bombed by Syrian or Russian planes, taking it temporarily out of commission and leaving only six hospitals operational in the area. This week, Aleppo’s M10 hospital was bombed yet again, leaving two doctors and a pharmacist wounded. The […]

For the past 35 years, the United States has been militarily involved in the Middle East – from Lebanon to Libya, Iraq to Syria. Yet this extensive involvement in the region has failed to make any lasting positive impact or achieve the United States’ stated goals, according to Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares […]

BY DOREEN HORSCHIG The total elimination of existing nuclear weapons worldwide, so-called “Global Zero,” at this point in time is neither feasible nor desirable for U.S. national security interests. A cold stability — regional and global stability provided through a threat of nuclear weapons — demonstrates the continued efficacy of existing nuclear weapons on the world […]

In Syria, a ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the United States quickly broke down last week. Although unstable from the outset, the truce crumbled after the US bombed a Syrian army position, in a move it said was accidental, and Russian or Syrian jets attacked a UN aid convoy near Aleppo. This ceasefire was just […]

US Secretary of State John Kerry strongly condemned the breakdown of the recent ceasefire in Syria before a meeting of the “Quintet” foreign ministers at Tufts University on Saturday. “One thing I think all of us join in saying, and I’m going to make this clear: What is happening in Aleppo today is unacceptable. And […]

Since launching his presidential bid last year, Donald Trump has come under fire for promising to “take” Iraq’s oil, ban Muslims from entering the United States, and subject terrorism suspects to “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” So how does the Arab world – which is the focus of some of Trump’s most bellicose rhetoric – view […]

Before the balkanization of the African continent into arbitrary pieces, it was one vast space made up of different cultures and identities. The Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885 resulted in random demarcations being drawn across the continent to appease the European countries’ colonial interests. The arbitrary lines of yesteryears currently serve as the borders […]

Abstract In this article, the core events that allowed the “truce” in El Salvador are described and briefly explained. There are three stages in this process: “pre-truce”, “truce” and “post-truce”. The stage of “truce” began in March 2012 with the government’s decision of moving thirty gang leaders to lower security level prisons. The “truce” process […]

BY MATTHEW FLUG After being stoked for years by British politicians, “Euroskepticism” has finally had its moment. Voters in the UK have decided to depart from the European Union (EU) after an once-in-a-lifetime ballot on the Referendum of the United Kingdom Membership of the European Union. This news has reverberated around the world and left in its wake […]

BY DIANA PARK On 6 January 2016, North Korean state media broadcast that it was now “a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate [a] self-reliant A-bomb [atomic weapon] and H-bomb [hydrogen, or thermonuclear, weapon] to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation.”[i] Even though initial seismic readings from US intelligence agencies […]

Fallujah, located 40 miles west of Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, has long been known as the “city of mosques.” But since its capture by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Shia militias fighting to take the predominantly Sunni city have bestowed other epithets on Fallujah. One militia leader compared it to a “tumor” […]