The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on July 25 repeated U.S. warnings that Russia could use sea mines to blow up a ship and blame the attack on Ukraine.
Ambassador Michael Carpenter said Russia would use such an incident — known as a false flag attack — to justify further attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea.
In recent years, the Maghreb has been showing signs of an accelerated regional disintegration in the midst of heightened intra-regional conflict. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary period of tension or if the region has become immersed in a ‘cold war’ that could heat up.
Turkish intelligence eliminated Özgür Şoreş, the Türkiye officer of terrorist group PKK/KCK-YPS, codenamed Özgür Alparslan, with an operation in northern Iraq, security sources said Saturday.
Şoreş, responsible for the terrorist group’s activities in Türkiye since 2019, was also the founder of Children of Fire initiative responsible for numerous forest fires and sabotages in Türkiye, and had personally given the order for the forest fires that started in Antalya’s Manavgat on July 28, 2021 and caused the destruction of over 150,000 hectares of forest fields across Muğla, Mersin and Hatay.
The Saudi-Iran Détente surprised the western intelligentsia, as they never expected the reconciliation between the dichotomous Arab-Persian regional powers. Recently, both countries announced that they would mend their diplomatic ties under the auspices of the People’s Republic of China. Although it will definitely impact the geopolitics of the Middle Eastern (ME) Region (such as the Yemen Ceasefire), the most indispensable area will be the geo-economics in the form of China’s energy security. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that China will certainly diversify its oil supply chain following the easing of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran as it seeks to attain energy security.
The Costs of Expanding the Alliance Outweigh the Benefits
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, policymakers and pundits, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, are pushing for NATO to offer Ukraine what French President Emmanuel Macron calls “a path toward membership” after the conflict concludes. This is not just show. Ukraine’s membership aspirations will now be a central topic of debate at NATO’s summit next week in Vilnius, with Ukraine arguing—as its former defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk wrote recently in Foreign Affairs—that it “should be welcomed and embraced” by the alliance. The way in which this issue is settled will have serious consequences for the United States, Europe, and beyond.
The Costs of Expanding the Alliance Outweigh the Benefits
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, policymakers and pundits, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, are pushing for NATO to offer Ukraine what French President Emmanuel Macron calls “a path toward membership” after the conflict concludes. This is not just show. Ukraine’s membership aspirations will now be a central topic of debate at NATO’s summit next week in Vilnius, with Ukraine arguing—as its former defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk wrote recently in Foreign Affairs—that it “should be welcomed and embraced” by the alliance. The way in which this issue is settled will have serious consequences for the United States, Europe, and beyond.
The alliance is bolstering its military deterrent in Europe amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has expanded to include Finland.
Introduction
Founded in 1949 as a bulwark against Soviet aggression, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remains the pillar of U.S.-Europe military cooperation. An expanding bloc of NATO allies has taken on a broad range of missions since the close of the Cold War, many well beyond the Euro-Atlantic region, in countries such as Afghanistan and Libya.
The cold war has never ended after the bifurcation of the former USSR rather it has taken a new shape by entering new players into the arena. The world has now converted from unipolar to multipolar world with the rising China. Along with other areas of the world the Middle East has become a new battlefield of cold war between America and China.
New report from Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime says the Western Balkans has become a key gateway for Russian cash to flow illicitly across borders thanks to the weak rule of law and high presence of orgnised crime there.
I recall vividly the latest NATO Summit that took place in Vilnius and was given a lot of coverage on the Russian TV. As a result of digesting daily news I can instantly visualise a huge gathering of Western politicians, military officials and diplomats.