360 Articles
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360° Analysis / Abdullah Ensour / Antonio Guterres / Bashar Al-Assad / Hussein Majali / Iraq / Jordan / Lebanon / Politics / Refugee Crisis / Refugee Week / Syria / Syrian Civil War / Turkey / UN / Unemployment / UNHCR / Valerie Amos / Zaatari Refugee Camp / Global Change / Middle EastSyria's neighboring countries are increasingly running out of resources to care for the masses of refugees. As the White House continues to mull over what it means, exactly, to breach the “red line,” Syria seems to be falling apart at the seams. The seams, in many regards, are what the world is watching. The continued, growing violence in Syria is steadily spilling over to its bordering countries (Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel), particularly in the form of its fleeing citizenry. Unfortunately, the region is not new to refugee crises. Not long ago, Syria was home to about a million Iraqis seeking refuge from their war-torn country. Now, those refugees, and Syria...
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360° Analysis / borders / development / Foreign Assistance / Haiti / Humanitarian Aid / Refugee Week / Refugees / UNDP / United Nations / United States / West / World Refugee Day / Global Change / AmericasRefugees are created by untenable circumstances within boundaries formed by the West. Late last fall, I was sitting outside in our farm yard in Vermont, just south of the Canadian border. My wife and I were remarking on the influx of the Common Red Poll, a bird not often seen in such numbers where we live. Upon further investigation, it seems that what had been a rather mild drought for us had been more profound and enduring, deeper into Quebec. There had not been enough seed to sustain the population up there. "Influencing the Narrative" That same fall, inside our home, on our monitors, I had noticed two other related phenomenon gaining momentum. The first pertained to...
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360° Analysis / Abdullah Öcalan / Ahmet Davutoglu / AKP / Bashar Al-Assad / Iraqi Kurdistan / Kurdistan / Kurdistan Regional Government / PKK / Politics / Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Sunni Alliance / Syria / Syrian Civil War / Turkey / Turkosphere / Middle EastThe rise of Kurdish political power has persuaded Turkey that it is time to strike a deal with its own Kurds. These are fateful days for the Kurdish populations of the Middle East. Caught for almost a century between the competing policies of the states among which they were divided following the First World War, these various communities now inhabit a fast-changing landscape. The Syrian Civil War — increasingly viewed as a conflict between Sunni Arabs and non-Sunni Arabs — has left the Kurds of Syria to quietly take control of their enclaves in the north of the country. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, which holds de facto control over northern Iraq, is witnessing...
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360° Analysis / Aleppo / Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool / Bashar Al-Assad / Free Syrian Army / Harakat Ahrar ash-Shams / Idlib / Jabhat Al-Nusra / Nikolaos Van Dam / Politics / Syria / Syrian Army / Syrian Civil War / Syrian Islamic Front / Syrian Islamic Liberation Front / Middle East / Global SecurityIn order to fully understand the armed conflict in Syria, one has to grasp the country’s agro-city regional organization. In the whirl and the rush of the fast-moving, bloody, and geo-politically significant events ongoing throughout Syria, it is easy to forget that certain classics of Syria studies can help us understand events in the country through culturally relevant socio-political and socio-economic perspectives. One such work is Michael van Dusen's 1972 analysis entitled, "Political Integration and Regionalism in Syria," which was published in the Spring edition of the Middle East Journal — excerpts of which can be accessed in Nikolaos van Dam'...
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360° Analysis / Asylum Support System / British Red Cross / Politics / refused asylum seekers / Still Human Still Here coalition / UK Court of Appeal / EuropeA 2010 report by the Still Human Still Here coalition, “At the End of the Line: Restoring Integrity of the UK’s Asylum System”, documents destitution, inadequate access to health care and inability to work among asylum seekers which are still relevant three years on. The following is an executive summary of the report. In January 2009, the British Red Cross announced that: “Some of the conditions that the British Red Cross have witnessed in dealing with destitution (in the UK) have shown a degree of suffering and inhumanity that, if we as the world’s largest humanitarian organisation witnessed them in a different environment, such as an area of natural disaster...
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360° Analysis / Ethnic Tamil Refugees / Human Trafficking / Illegal Immigration / Politics / Refugee Week / Sri Lankan Civil War / Tamil Nadu / Tamil Refugees in India / World Refugee Day / Global Change / AsiaEven after the end of civil war in Sri Lanka, the fate of its ethnic Tamil refugees remains uncertain. The lives of thousands of Sri Lankans who fled the devastating and prolonged violence of the civil war remain in a state of insecurity worldwide. For many, the desperate hope of beginning a stable life far from persecution and violence and soliciting asylum mainly in Europe and Australia, has been compelling enough to make often perilous and precarious boat journeys. The protracted civil war in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009, between the separatist Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and the pro-government forces of Sinhalese ethnicity, triggered a mass exodus of Sri Lankan Tamils from their country of birth...
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360° Analysis / Ahmadinejad / Ayatollah Khamenei / Election / Iran's Election / Iranian Nuclear Crisis / Iranian Presidential Election / Iranian Sanctions / Khamenei / Politics / Rouhani / United States / Middle EastRouhani’s surprising victory in the presidential election represents a significant shift in the Iranian political landscape. Hassan Rouhani’s surprising first round victory in the presidential elections represents a significant shift in the Iranian political landscape. In a field of candidates dominated by conservatives, Rouhani ran as a moderate. He questioned the necessity of the expanding security state and the constant oversight of student and civil society associations by the security agencies. He spoke of the need for greater freedom of press and speech. He devoted attention to women’s rights issues and promised to establish a ministry for women’s affairs...
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360° Analysis / Ayatollah Ali Khamenei / Barack Obama / Diplomacy / Hassan Rouhani / Iran / Iranian Nuclear Program / Iranian Presidential Election 2013 / Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / Politics / Sanctions / UN / US-Iranian relations / Middle EastIran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, could bring change to US-Iranian relations. After seven years' absence from the panel, in May, the United States won back a seat representing the Western group on the United Nations committee on program and coordination. When the committee reorganized on June 3, the United States took its seat — and announced it would boycott all meetings of the committee. The reason: the chairmanship of the committee, this session, had passed to Iran. "Countries that are under Chapter VII sanctions for not meeting their international obligations with regard to their nuclear program should not hold formal or ceremonial positions in UN bodies,"...
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360° Analysis / Amnesty International / Credibility Guidance / Politics / Still Human Still Here coalition / UK asylum seekers / UK Border Agency / UK Home Office / Europe"A question of credibility: Why so many initial asylum decisions are overturned on appeal in the UK." A 2013 report by Amnesty International and Still Human Still Here, identifies flaws in the processing of asylum applications. The following is an executive summary of the report. In 2004, Amnesty International published its report Get It Right: How Home Office Decision Making Fails Refugees. This study found that one in five decisions to refuse asylum was overturned on appeal. Almost a decade later, despite improvements in the quality of initial decision making, the number of allowed appeals has increased, with more than 25 per cent of decisions to refuse asylum being overturned...