Author: M Barbu

Russia: ‘Foreign Agents’, ‘Undesirable Organizations’, And Freedom Of Religion Or Belief

Russia has used increasingly strict legislation on “foreign agents” (a term which has connotations of spying) and “undesirable organisations” to curtail, complicate, or prohibit the activities of organisations which promote human rights and monitor their violation, including that of freedom of religion and belief. This “indirectly affects the people human rights defenders stand up for”, says Aleksandr Verkhovsky of the SOVA Centre for Information and Analysis (branded a “foreign agent”). The Justice Ministry and prosecutors are seeking through the courts to close down the Memorial Human Rights Centre (also branded a “foreign agent”), partly for its monitoring of criminal prosecutions of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Sahel Conflict Set To Worsen In 2022 – Analysis

Islamist militant attacks increased this past year in the Sahel region, leading to political instability that saw a coup in Mali, an attempted coup in Niger, and calls for Burkina Faso’s president to resign. Burkina Faso experienced the deadliest terrorist attacks since the conflict began, but analysts say the worst could be yet to come.

2021 marks the ninth year of conflict in Africa’s western Sahel, and in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, violence has only worsened.

The Transfer Of Weapons To Fragile States Through European Peace Facility: Export Control Challenges – Analysis

The ancient Romans used to say: ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ (‘If you want peace, prepare for war’). Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, paraphrased this aphorism at last year’s 10th EU–African Union meeting when he suggested that arming African partners is necessary to help to silence terrorists’ guns, which reflected a significant shift in the EU’s foreign and security policy. This new approach—part of the EU’s increasing reliance on military-oriented tools to fulfil its goals to contribute to peace, security and development around the world—is in some measure embodied by the new European Peace Facility (EPF).

Va fi sau nu va fi război?

Idei principale:

Tratatul și acordul propuse de Rusia Statelor Unite și NATO sunt mai degrabă ultimatumuri, dar ce prevederi conțin ele?

Cum dorește Putin să arate arena internațională?

Ciclurile din istoria Rusiei și dorința de revanșă

Putin vrea să împartă lumea în sfere de influență după modelul Molotov-Ribbentrop

De ce a acceptat administrația Biden să negocieze cu Kremlinul

De ce este importantă Ucraina pentru Rusia

Care sunt liniile roșii ale Rusiei și la ce sunt ele bune

Situația politică internă din Ucraina

Cât de puternică este astăzi armata ucraineană după șapte ani de modernizare

De ce Putin crede că o Ucraină pro-occidentală nu există, și doar una pro-rusească

Concluziile după video-conferința Biden-Putin

Cum s-ar putea încheia negocierile cu Rusia de la Geneva și Bruxelles?

Va renunța NATO la Deveselu ca să calmeze Rusia?

Arab Coalition Releases Footage Showing Hezbollah, Iranian Involvement In Yemen War

The Arab coalition on Sunday released footage and pictures it said provided evidence of Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Yemen’s seven-year war and the use of Sanaa airport as a missile launch site.

At a press conference in the Saudi capital, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki showed footage of Hezbollah instructors training Houthis on how to use drones.

In some videos, boxes of drone parts can be seen stacked with some bearing Hezbollah’s logo.

Putin To Mull Options If West Doesn’t Meet ‘Security Guarantees’

President Vladimir Putin has said he would ponder various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands for security guarantees, amid heightened tensions involving a massive deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine.

Moscow earlier this month submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among other things.

‘Phase One’ US–China Trade Deal Better Than No Deal – Analysis

The ‘phase one’ trade deal between the United States and China entered into force on 14 February 2020. As part of this agreement, China agreed to make structural reforms, open up its financial services and strengthen intellectual property. China also pledged to buy at least US$200 billion in additional US goods and services over 2020 and 2021.

Unavoidability Of Sino-American Rift: History Of Strategic Decoupling – Analysis

Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China. This signalled a ‘new opening’: West imagined China’s coastal areas as its own industrial suburbia. Soon after, both countries easily agreed on interdependence (in this marriage of convenience): Americans pleased their corporate (machine and tech) sector and unrestrained its greed, while Chinese in return offered a cheap labour, no environmental considerations and submissiveness in imitation. Both spiced it by nearly religious approach to trade.

Islam And Democracy: Are They Antithetical? – Analysis

Shûrâ, Or The Principle Of Collective Deliberation

When one evokes the relation between Islam and democracy, (1) the temptation is great to go to texts (Qur’an and Hadîth) and to Muslim political history of experiences of governance with analogies to modern pluralistic systems. (2) Hence the reformist currents of Islamic thought, which intend to promote the principle of shûrâ, which can be roughly translated as “collective deliberation”. On the theological level shûrâ refers directly to the Qur’anic text, in particular to Sûrah 42, precisely entitled “The Consultation”:

Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success

Al Qaeda Changed the World—but Not in the Way It Expected

On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda carried out the deadliest foreign terrorist attack the United States had ever experienced. To Osama bin Laden and the other men who planned it, however, the assault was no mere act of terrorism. To them, it represented something far grander: the opening salvo of a campaign of revolutionary violence that would usher in a new historical era. Although bin Laden was inspired by religion, his aims were geopolitical. Al Qaeda’s mission was to undermine the contemporary world order of nation-states and re-create the historical umma, the worldwide community of Muslims that was once held together by a common political authority. Bin Laden believed that he could achieve that goal by delivering what he described as a “decisive blow” that would force the United States to withdraw its military forces from Muslim-majority states, thus allowing jihadis to fight autocratic regimes in those places on a level playing field.