TOPICS

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 …

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 …

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, …