Military & Security

Christopher L. Brennan From Libya and Egypt to Syria and Yemen, the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region is undergoing unprecedented tumult and chaos. To understand the current breakdown of states and society, examining the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 that laid the groundwork for this ongoing regional anarchy is indispensable. …

Dr Ahmed Al-Burai If Deniz Zeyrek, a famous leftist journalist in Turkey, was to say, “The state of Israel and its people are undoubtedly sincere friends of Turkey and our condemnations until now are aimed at some extreme illegitimate actions of the Israeli government,” he would be condemned …

Bill Gertz Islamic State terrorists in Syria, assisted by western experts, are trying to develop improvised anti-aircraft missiles following stepped up airstrikes against its forces, according to U.S. officials and reports from the region. The effort was disclosed by an anti-ISIS social media account that revealed the anti-aircraft …

The formation of a national unity government may pave the way toward asking Russia to conduct airstrikes on Daesh positions.  The request to Russia on the launch of airstrikes against Islamic State (IS or Daesh in Arabic) can be submitted only after the formation of a national unity government, which will be in exclusive position to make …

Imagine you had a time machine that could take you back to compare what people thought would happen in 2015 with what actually did occur. Some of the events of the last year, like the Syrian rebel training programs falling apart, were utterly predictable. Others were deeply surprising; the …

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 …

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 …

Washington should avoid committing more US ground troops in the latest Middle Eastern conflict, CIA veteran Paul R. Pillar notes, adding that the exploitation of the Daesh (IS/ISIL) issue by American politicians is likely to continue. While the majority of the US presidential candidates are banging war drums over the …