Denmark Cancels Residency Permit for a Syrian Student Months Before Her Graduation

Danish Minister of Immigration and Integration, Mattias Tesfaye, created a crisis in Denmark when he canceled the resident status from a host of Syrian refugees, which would blow up their future.

The case of the Syrian student Aya Abu Zahr has gone viral on social media in Denmark after receiving an official letter that freezes her residency and demands that she leave the country, only three months before graduating from high school.

Can We Win in the ‘Gray Zone’?

The gray zone is the space between peace and war involving coercive actions that fall outside normal geopolitical competition between states but do not reach the level of armed conflict…. They usually seek to avoid a significant military response, though are often designed to intimidate and deter a target state by threatening further escalation.

[B]ut do liberal democracies in the 21st Century have the political will to do the dirty work that is necessary to win?

Western nations have multiple pre-emptive and reactive options to respond to gray zone actions directed against them or their allies, most effectively involving multilateral coordination. The objective should be to frustrate or deter, avoiding escalation that might lead to all-out conflict. Broadly, options fall into four categories: diplomatic, informational, economic and military.

Resurgence of Terrorism in Southeast Asia

A string of recent terrorist attacks and plots in Southeast Asia has authorities concerned over the enduring threat posed by regional terrorists.

Militant groups tied to the Islamic State have repeatedly sought to attack targets associated with Christians, including churches, as well as police.

From Pacifism To Violence and the Dialectic

I am trying to wrap my brain around the abyss between pacifism and violence as to the proper means to bring about socio-political change. And as to how to overcome that divide. Though not violent as a person, my basic impulse, my instinct in this regard, is belligerent: ultimately, I believe, it will be necessary to unleash a lethal war to the finish against Power, if only to assuage a burning anger buried in the human psyche against the psychopathological forces of Power intent on the destruction of the world. It is clear that the struggle is unfair since ONLY Power uses violence—primarily violence—a violence masked under countless euphemistic masks.

Yemen Is a Public Health Catastrophe

The war in Yemen—the Arab world’s poorest country—has reached new heights of sickness and death by the spreading of the coronavirus pandemic in a vulnerable and fragile population. The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could be greater than the combined toll of war, disease and hunger over the last five years, according to Lise Grande, the U.N.’s head of humanitarian operations in Yemen.