Arab World

By Yezid Sayigh | (Project Syndicate) | – – WASHINGTON, DC – Experience across the Arab world demonstrates that when it comes to security-sector reform, technocratic approaches are inadequate. Simply put, a technocratic focus on upgrading skills and operational capability, in the absence of improved governance of the security services, can be easily subverted by […]

Featured

Syrian Ceasefire in Tatters as al-Qaeda & allies attack in South Aleppo

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The London pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reports that the rebel opposition allied with al-Qaeda broke the ceasefire Saturday morning, taking several villages and towns in the southern hinterlands of Aleppo. The attack was launched with suicide car-bombers who detonated their payload, targeting Syrian Arab Army troops and […]

Climate Change

3 Surprising reasons Saudi Arabia may be getting out of the Oil Business

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman announced Friday that Saudi Arabia would use its oil assets to back a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The move suggested to many observers that the kingdom is preparing for a likely end of the petroleum business and transitioning to […]

Iraq

Iraq: Shiite Militias issue threats against US Troops going to Iraq to fight Salafi ISIL

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Recently US troops started fighting the [so-called] Islamic State in Iraq [ISIL], with ‘boots on the ground’. But is keeping a distance between the US and some old Shiite enemies hampering the fight? Or is it just good tactics? Iraqis found out that just about […]

Featured

Syria Endgame: Are Russia and US Planning overthrow of ISIL in al-Raqqa?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Russian press had been complaining that the West was ignoring its defeat of terrorism in Syria. But now the Russian press is saying that the US and the Russian Federation are jointly planning to liberate the Syrian city of al-Raqqa, the capital of the phony […]

Syria

After Palmyra, the last days of the phony Caliphate?

contributors

TeleSur The loss of the historic city amounts to one of the biggest setbacks for the extremist group since it declared a caliphate in 2014. Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes battled Islamic State group insurgents around Palmyra on Monday, trying to extend their gains after taking back control of a city whose ancient […]

Featured

Fall of Palmyra: Syrian regime races to take ISIL’s ‘Berlin’ and forestall ‘Partition’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – That massive Russian air strikes and a determined infantry and armor assault by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the ancient city of Palmyra could dislodge from it a few hundred or at most a couple thousand Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters is not all that surprising. […]

Belgium

What would effective Counter-Terrorism look like after Brussels?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The various nostrums proposed to counter Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorism in Europe and North America by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (armed patrols by police of putative “Muslim neighborhoods”, a Muslim exclusion act, etc.) are of course complete non-starters. So too are killing the children of […]

Displaced and Refugees

Will Western powers Respond to HRW’s demand for arms embargo on Saudi Arabia?

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As hundreds of civilians continue to be killed in the ongoing conflict in Yemen, one of the leading human rights organization is calling for an arms embargo – specifically against Saudi Arabia which is leading a coalition of eight countries battling […]