Author: M Barbu

The Pakistani Army: A Legacy Of Proxy Forces, Terrorism, And Human Rights Violations – OpEd

The Pakistani military is distinguished as the only armed force in the world that embraces “Jihad” as its motto, making it a unique entity that governs a nation rather than being merely a part of a country’s defense system. Since its establishment in 1947, Pakistan has strategically employed proxy forces to not only destabilize the region but also to exert influence on a global scale. One of its initial uses of proxy forces involved sending Pashtun tribe members to engage Indian forces in Kashmir, sparking the first conflict between India and Pakistan. These Pashtun tribesmen were subsequently utilized as proxies in various operations.

A Better Path for Ukraine and NATO

What Kyiv Could Do Now for a Place in the Alliance

We know what will not happen at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington this week: Ukraine becoming the alliance’s 33rd member. U.S. officials are talking instead about giving Ukraine “a bridge to NATO,” as National Security Council Senior Director for Europe Michael Carpenter put it recently. But when it comes to membership, many of the alliance’s leaders—including the United States and Germany—remain concerned that a formal move will be impossible as long as Kyiv is at war, given the centrality of the alliance’s Article 5 guarantee that an attack against one will be considered an attack against all.

At the NATO Summit, Containment Plus for Russia

This piece is part of a commentary series on the upcoming NATO summit in Washington in which RAND researchers explore important strategic questions for the alliance as NATO confronts a historic moment, navigating both promise and peril.

Palestine and Western Sahara: Two intersecting causes and resistance paths, By Oubi Bouchraya Bachir

This similarity between the two causes has led to the intersection of the two peoples’ struggles at many stages.

The actual challenges and the pressure of the current pivotal juncture that the two causes are going through and the deepening and diversifying aspects of the alliance and joint conspiracy between Israel and Morocco, requires that Palestinians and Sahrawis raise their hands together and march jointly towards achieving freedom and independence. Only together can we exploit the opportunities that exist in the common enemy’s camp.

Un document déclassifié sur les plans de Paris pour envoyer des milliers de soldats en Ukraine

Le service de renseignement extérieur (SVR) de la Russie a déclassifié le rapport complet de l’un de ses résidents sur l’envoi d’un contingent militaire français en Ukraine en mars de cette année. Le texte intégral du rapport du résident du SVR sous le pseudonyme Felix sur le sujet est publié dans la revue «Éclaireur».

Le chef du SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, a déclaré le 19 mars que Paris se préparait déjà à envoyer un contingent militaire en Ukraine, dont le nombre sera d’environ 2 mille personnes. La France l’avait alors démentie.

Iranian Officials Acknowledge Iran’s Role In Planning And Executing October 7 Hamas Invasion And Massacres In Southern Israel

On several occasions, Iranian officials have revealed that the Iranian regime was involved in the planning and execution of Hamas’s “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” the October 7, 2023 invasion and massacres in southern Israel in which over 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 240 were taken hostage. Statements by these officials contradict the regime’s official stance, as expressed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on October 10, 2023, that Iran was not involved in the attack.[1]

Iran: Reformer Pezeshkian On The Path To Reforms? – Analysis

Reformer Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocates for greater openness towards the West, was elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a decisive second round of presidential elections held on 5 July 2024. He faced hardline conservative candidate Saeed Jalili, succeeding President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May 2024. Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old cardiac surgeon, secured over 16 million votes (53.6%) out of a total of 30.5 million voters, while his opponent received 44.3%.

How To Counter Fascism – OpEd

It is not only economic insecurity that helps create a mass base for fascism but also fear or the sense of physical insecurity. Practically alone among Filipino politicians in his quest for the presidency in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte appealed to “rampant criminality” as his main, indeed, only road to power. A blistering five-fold increase in reported crime and a marked decline in effective law enforcement were recorded in the years prior to the elections and a generalized sense of lawlessness took hold in the public consciousness, especially among the “aspirational middle class, who benefited from concentrated growth in the retail, real estate, and business outsourcing sectors, but now worried about their basic safety,” noted analyst Richard Heydarian.