Analysis

Andrew Bowen On Friday, John Kerry convened a high-level session of UN Security Council member states’ foreign ministers to build on the diplomatic momentum that came from the October and November Syria talks in Vienna. Late afternoon Friday, Kerry, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, France’s Laurent Fabius and the UK’s …

Michael J. Brenner Americans are in the grip of a particular hysteria – once again. First it arrived in the panic provoked by the atrocity of 9/11. The symptoms of that Post-Traumatic Shock are still with us. Now it returns in the panic in the aftermath of San …

As President Barack Obama struggles to reassure Americans that his administration has a handle on terrorism, specialists in the burgeoning field of countering violent extremism (CVE) say the US government should devote more resources to domestic programs that can prevent susceptible youth from succumbing to the approaches of terrorist …

Some key members of the 34-nation anti-IS coalition announced by Saudi Arabia have a fundamental question: just what is it? Indonesia apparently did not know it was going to be a military alliance, which it does not want to join. A senior Pakistani lawmaker, meanwhile, only learned the …

Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman Bin Abdel Aziz surprised everybody with a sudden announcement that a new 34-nation military alliance of Moslem countries had been established and that its HQ is to be in Riyadh. Pakistan was astonished to find it was named as …

Joseph Waters Propaganda is a deadly poison, as Andre Vltchek bemoans: “How do we achieve victory? How do we convince the masses, those billions of people? How do we open their eyes and make them see that the Western regime is dishonest, toxic, poisonous and destructive? Most of …

Nikolas K. Gvosdev President Vladimir Putin engaged in his traditional end-of-year marathon press conference this week with some 1,300 journalists attending in Moscow. As is his wont, Putin used the event to reassure Russians that despite the hardships of the last year, the economy has turned a corner, …

Mike Whitney Would you be willing to defend your country against a foreign invasion? That’s all Putin is doing in Syria. He’s just preempting the tidal wave of jihadis that’ll be coming his way once the current fracas is over. He figures it’s better to exterminate these US-backed maniacs in Syria now than face …

Turkish and Ukrainian media have reported that President Erdogan has met with two of the organizers of the so-called Crimean blockade. Earlier this week, another of the masterminds behind the failed ‘food’ and ‘electricity’ blockades promised that the radicals would organize a ‘naval blockade’. Is a provocation imminent? …