What’s new? As jihadist groups in the Sahel move southward, Côte d’Ivoire has beefed up its security deployment in the north and rolled out a range of social projects to alleviate poverty and youth unemployment. Militant violence has subsided since a series of attacks in the north between 2020 and 2021.
When
September 12, 2023
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Where
Zoom Webinar
Russia’s aggression in the Black Sea countries has targeted societal vulnerabilities and exploited ethnic tensions in the Black Sea region for decades. Russia’s full-scale war has further exploited these vulnerabilities. But slow and imperfect democratization processes, economic hardship and inequality have also had long-lasting effects on societal resilience and the formation of national identities that are inclusive and democratic.
Pakistan’s 76th Independence Day, on Aug. 14, was marked by an undercurrent of challenges. The 16-month rule of the 13-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government concluded, making way for a new technocratic caretaker administration tasked with overseeing upcoming general elections. However, this power transition is not as straightforward as it seems. The appointment of the new caretaker government has created uncertainty, raising doubts about whether Pakistan will smoothly transition to another democratic government or if the caretaker setup will exceed its constitutional mandate.
On Aug. 23, an Embraer Legacy-600 business jet exploded over Russia’s Tver Oblast. The crash resulted in the deaths of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, co-founder Dmitry Utkin, and logistics head Valery Chekalov. While predictions of Prigozhin’s impending demise were widespread after he launched an abortive mutiny against Russia’s military leadership on June 23, his death — and the dramatic way in which it came about — sent renewed shockwaves across the world and plunged the Wagner private military company’s (PMC) global influence operations into a state of uncertainty.
The Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water, is steadily shrinking. Water levels reached a critical low in 2022 and continue to fall by 6-7 centimeters per year, with some projections suggesting it could drop by as much as 9-18 meters by the end of the century. Although the five littoral states — Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan — have a history of making efforts to maintain it, the unique environment of the Caspian basin has been in decline in recent years.
De la faillite programmée des États arabes et des illusions du fédéralisme
Bien avant les dernières années de braises, nous n’avons cessé d’attirer l’attention sur les écrits de Zbigniew Brzeziński, Condoleezza Rice, Bernard Lewis et de plusieurs autres auteurs du même bord. Des écrits qui se résument à dire que les États de la région arabe sont sur le chemin de la faillite et de l’effondrement, soit sous le poids de la corruption et de la tyrannie, soit sous la pression des ingérences étrangères, et que le mieux serait de programmer des déflagrations sociales qui mèneraient à leur démembrement sur une base confessionnelle ou doctrinaire, de telle sorte que nul ne pourrait en hériter ou reconstruire sur leurs décombres des alternatives nationales, patriotes et démocratiques.
On Sept. 8, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key U.S. ally, announced the end of its “Operation Security Enhancement” in Deir ez-Zor in northeast Syria. While framed as an operation targeting ISIS sleeper cells and criminals, it aimed at quashing an armed uprising led by Arab tribesmen, particularly members of the Akidat tribe. Clashes first erupted following the SDF’s arrest of Ahmed al-Khubayl (“Abu Khawla”), the commander of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council, on Aug. 27 and were led mainly by his close allies and fellow tribesmen. The rebellion grew in the following days as other tribes joined in, including those that had poor relations with Abu Khawla and had pushed for his removal for years. While multiple factors may have contributed to fueling the uprising, the importance of the region’s longstanding grievances cannot be overstated.
The Turkish leader doubled down on Turkey’s support to Cyprus, while EU officials said that renewed talks about the island must be based on UN resolutions.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan redoubled his calls to the international community on Thursday to recognize the Turkish Cypriot state, saying that no new talks on the divided island could happen without recognizing the equal status of Turkish Cypriots.
Tensions flare up in Kirkuk ahead of provincial elections in December amid Arab and Turkmen fears of renewed Kurdish control of the oil-rich city.
Plagued by the oil curse and long disputed between its ethnic communities, the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk is once again teetering on the edge of civil war, with local elections just three months away.
Recently, Turkish President Erdogan and Russian President Putin met in Sochi.
In the statement made by the Kremlin just before the Wagner rebellion in June, it was stated that Erdogan invited Putin to Türkiye and that preparations were being made. But the meeting was held in Russia, not in Türkiye as expected. The focus of the meeting was the Black Sea Grain Corridor Agreement.