Global Security
Global Security
Fair Observer's analysis of issues in governance, constitution, law, enforcement, and justice both nationally and internationally.
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360° Analysis / Aleppo / Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool / Bashar Al-Assad / Damascus / Free Syrian Army / Jabhat Al-Nusra / Jihad / Jordan / Lattakia / Nicholas A. Heras / Politics / Qatar / Saudi Arabia / Sayyida Zeinab / Syria / Turkey / Middle East / Global SecurityAlwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool is a growing force against the al-Assad government in Syria. It is poised to become one of the most heavily observed and commonly cited fighting forces of the Syrian Civil War. Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool (Brigades of the Descendants of the Prophet) is an increasingly powerful national umbrella organization of locally-based Syrian Sunni Islamist armed opposition fighting groups which are active belligerents against the al-Assad government. It is a “franchise” organization whose constituent kata’ib (battalions) announce that they are formally part of, and fight under the banner of, the national “Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool.” The number of kata...
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360° Analysis / Algerian War / Colonialism / Extremism / France / Informed Comment / Islam / Juan Cole / Muslims / Russia / Stalin / terrorism / Tsar / United States / World War 1 / World War 2 / Europe / Middle East / Africa / Global Security / AsiaBy Juan ColeTerrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents, argues Juan Cole. Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States. As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the 20th Century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but...
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360° Analysis / Boston Bombings / Chechen-Russian War / Chechens / Chechnya / Iliana Hagenah / international security / terrorism / Tsarnaev / United States / Europe / Global SecurityHistorically, radical jihadists in Chechnya do not have the ideological ambition to form a network of Chechens against the US, argues Iliana Hagenah. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher once called Chechen rebels "freedom fighters" but they are now seen by many as radical Islamists. Chechen Islamists have recently been making the headlines. Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers who recently bombed the Boston Marathon, are suspected to be products of the radical Islamist movement that has gripped Chechnya and parts of the Chechen Diaspora. Chechen history offers clues about whether these radical jihadi Islamists are part of a broader anti-American network...
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360° Analysis / Awakening Movement / Ba'athism / BBC Media Action Brief / Iraq / Media Freedom / Nationalism / Nouri Al-Maliki / Politics / Protest / Saddam Hussein / Sectarianism / Shia / Sunni / Syria / Turkey / UN Mission to Iraq / Yasmeen Alamiri / Middle East / Global SecurityIn the midst of growing unrest in the Middle East, Iraq is yet again ablaze, fueled by sectarian strife. Sunni protests, pushing against a Shia leadership, have led international spectators to already call a civil war in the country. Iraq, a country embroiled in sectarian warfare, must now rise above it. Ten years ago, on May 1, 2003, then-US President George W. Bush boarded the USS Abraham Lincoln and infamously declared “Mission Accomplished,” regarding the fledgling war in Iraq. A decade later, talk of a civil war fueled squarely by sectarian rifts, has once again resurfaced. The United Nations mission to Iraq last week said that more people were killed in attacks in the...
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Ashley Lohmann / Iraq / Iraq War / Iraqia Bloc / Moqtada Al-Sadr / Nouri Al-Maliki / Politics / Protest / Saddam Hussein / Sectarianism / Shia / Sunni / US Troop Withdrawal / 360° Context / Middle East / Global SecurityLast month’s spike in violence across Iraq has underscored the sectarian tensions that have been on the rise since the withdrawal of US troops. Background Of the numerous challenges facing Iraq as a nation, sectarian tension between its Shia majority and Sunni minority may be the most intractable. Sectarian rifts that deepened under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led regime bubbled to the surface after the United States invasion in 2003, culminating in a civil war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. Although the violence has diminished significantly since 2007, tensions plague the country’s political and economic spheres, and outbreaks of violence threaten its stability....
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360° Analysis / AIPAC / Congress / DEFENSE GUIDANCE PLAN / Ehud Barak / George W. Bush / Iraq / Iraq War / Israel / Israel Lobby / Neoconservatives / Politics / Saddam Hussein / Stephen Zunes / terrorism / United States / US Imperialism / WMD / Middle East / Global SecurityStephen Zunes argues that the blame for the Iraq War should not be put on the Israel lobby but the Bush administration and US imperialism. This is the last of a two part series. Read part 1 here. “Pro-Israel Jewish neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, and other neo-cons behind the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) were among the key architects of the policy of ‘preventative war' and were the strongest advocates for a US invasion of Iraq.” While it is true that a disproportionate number of neoconservative Jews were among the policymakers who pushed for a US invasion of Iraq, it is also true that a...
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360° Analysis / Asia-Pacific / Beijing / BRICS / Brinksmanship / DPRK / Fair Observer / North Korea / obama / Pyongyang / Seoul / South Korea / Wilson Chew / BRIC / Global Security / AsiaBy Wilson ChewChina’s cooperation in dealing with North Korea will likely be temporary and prudential. If North Korea is the hysterical child that Western news media — aided by the north’s own apocalyptic rhetoric — portrays it to be, then China is often cast as the doting grandparent, indulgent to a fault. In 2013, however, this indulgence appears to have come to an abrupt end. After North Korea proceeded with a nuclear test in February, despite China's pleas for restraint, the Chinese approved the UN-imposed sanctions passed in March, even helping to draft the resolution. Where this remarkable change in tack has been noted, it has been with optimism; though the basis for...
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360° Analysis / Beijing / China / Depsang / India / India-China Border Dispute / Ladakh / Manmohan Singh / Mumbai / New Delhi / Nitin A. Gokhale / Politics / BRIC / Global Security / AsiaThe recent incursion by Chinese troops in Ladakh's Depsang area should serve as a timely reminder to India that timelines for infrastructure development along the Chinese frontier and plans to boost military capability, do not have the luxury of slippages. Almost exactly four years ago, the outgoing UPA-I government's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was meeting for the last time before the results of the 2009 general elections were to be announced. The sole item on the agenda: enhancing India's military preparedness against China. According to insiders present at that meeting, some of the members of the CCS wanted to leave the decision to the next government. But...
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360° Analysis / Al-Qusayr / Bashar Al Assad / Free Syrian Army / Hezbollah / Iran / National Defense Army / Nicholas A. Heras / Popular Committees / Quds Force / Syria / United Nations Commission of Inquiry / Yarmuk Refugee Camp / Middle East / Global SecurityPopular Committees, neighborhood defense organizations mobilized to protect pro-government or politically neutral neighborhoods in Syria’s most restive regions, are evolving into locally cohesive divisions of a “National Defense Army.” They have the capacity to present a great challenge to the future military efforts of the armed opposition. [Note: This article was originally published by The Jamestown Foundation.] As the Syrian Civil War enters its second year, the lijaan sha’abiya (“Popular Committees”), local defense forces supported by the Syrian military, are taking on an increasingly important role in the country’s conflict. The...