Author: M Barbu

Can The Palestinian Authority Survive? – OpEd

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is in a parlous state. Its standing with the Palestinian population has sunk to new low levels, while it has lost authority to more extremist groups in large parts of the West Bank. Voices from within Israel’s defense and security establishment have been warning for months that if the PA were to collapse, the resulting power vacuum in the West Bank would almost certainly be filled by extremist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that would present Israel with much greater problems than it faces at the moment.

Ukraine And The World Order – OpEd

As the Cold War began to wane, multipolarism became a rallying cry for everyone sick and tired of superpower politics, nuclear standoffs, and the banal bipolarism of Soviet misinformation and American propaganda.

This “rise of the rest” was prefigured in the Non-Aligned Movement that began in 1961, the New International Economic Order that the United Nations launched in the 1970s, the consolidation of an economically powerful East Asia and a single European market in the 1980s, and the south-south cooperation that emerged in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, after a couple of papers by Morgan Stanley, of all places, the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa was christened and then institutionalized.

Why it’s time to repatriate IS foreign fighters

As the clock ticks down on the repatriation of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters from Syria, a recent development has added a new sense of urgency to the situation. On June 11, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the de facto authority in northeast Syria, announced its intention to prosecute approximately 2,000 IS foreign fighters — i.e., those who are not Syrian or Iraqi — in an effort to deliver justice to the victims of the terrorist organization. However, the lack of international recognition for the AANES and its courts renders these trials illegitimate, further complicating future international legal efforts to prosecute these combatants.

Wagner Group Operations In Belarus: ‘Welcome to Hell’

Since its mutiny, the Russian private military company “Wagner Group” has redeployed to Belarus and is now training troops near the Polish border while President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko makes belligerent statements. However, Telegram channels, including that of Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, as well others reporting on Wagner Group and Belarus, report that Wagner Group personnel are also training Belarussian internal security forces.

Unraveling The Aftermath: How The US-Taliban Deal Impacted Pakistan’s Security Landscape – Analysis

Introduction
The agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020 aimed to withdraw most U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2021. This withdrawal would result in certain factions of the Taliban gaining a larger role in Afghan politics, raising concerns for India. Indian assets in Afghanistan have been targeted by the Haqqani group, a major Taliban faction, and India’s investments in the country were protected by the presence of U.S.-led troops and the stability they brought.

Ukraine Military Situation: Wagner Training Belarusian Military Elite Troops – Analysis

  1. Wagner Begins Training the Belarusian Military’s Elite Units

Open-source intelligence this week revealed that the Wagner Private Military Company has begun training elite units of the Belarusian Armed Forces in Belarus. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fighters are now training the 38th Air Assault Brigade, which falls under the Belarusian Special Operations Command, and they may start training the 5th Spetsnaz Brigade and the 103rd Airborne Brigade later. Hudson Institute’s Ukraine Military Situation Report will continue to monitor open-source intelligence for signs that other Special Operations Command formations are cooperating with Wagner.

Ukraine’s Manpower Requirements Reaching Critical Threshold – Analysis

Following Ukraine’s successful Kherson counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, the war in Ukraine has moved into the Materialschlacht, or war of attrition phase, which is rapidly depleting critical resources. Typically, when discussing resources in this sense, Ukraine is most often referring to the tanks, missiles, ammunition and other materiel that it needs from its partner countries.

The General Directorate of Provinces: Managing the Islamic State’s Global Network

Abstract: Despite dominating the headlines for almost a decade, surprisingly little is known about the Islamic State’s internal organization. After the declaration of the caliphate in June 2014, the organization’s center of gravity rested in the offices of the caliph and the spokesman and the Delegated Committee. Yet, with the deaths of successive caliphs, the territorial demise in the Levant, and the growing importance of its external provinces, the General Directorate of Provinces has emerged as the organization’s most decisive body. This is the first exhaustive account of the Islamic State’s most important, yet little understood, institution.