CULTURE, PSYCHOLOGY & MEDIA
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
The Road to Damascus is Paved with Ill-Intent
The Biblical conversion of Paul to Christianity “on the road to Damascus” implied a turning point for the onetime antagonist of Christ. But now the road to Damascus is an unmarked and uncertain path, full of treachery and hidden motives ...
GOVERNANCE & ELECTIONS
Tortuous Politics in the Americas
The US White House and Cuba appear to cooperate against a common enemy: US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Geostrategic Architecture: Suspended Belief
Even North Korea’s strategic brinkmanship has links to the Eastern Mediterranean/Northern Tier crises, but, with everyone so focused on their own geographic area of interest, nobody notices the big picture. It’s as though all beliefs have become suspended in bubbles of jargon.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Complex Soup: The “Eastern-Mediterranean, Central-Asian, East Asian, Euro-Atlantic and Others” Unified Dilemma
A butterfly flaps its wings at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in North Korea, and a political equation becomes a tidal wave in Tehran. It’s more complicated than that, but, yes, everything is related.
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
ESSENTIAL READING | Pivotal Persia
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Africa: Mali, Nigeria, and the Bigger Picture
The Mali War will be neither simple nor quick, ‘though the players all wish it so.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Mali: Center Stage
The international community finally began addressing the issue of Islamist fighters in Mali. This provided an opportunity for Nigeria, in particular, to rebuild its own security and political stability. But there was still no guarantee that the opportunity would be grasped.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Terrorism and Geopolitics: The Release of Abu-Musab al-Suri
How the release from a Syrian prison of perhaps the most important jihadist ideologues reflects a delicate interplay between Iran, Syria, and the Sunni jihadist forces from Qatar, Turkey, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Pakistan’s Strategic Significance in a Transformed World
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Strategic Affairs: No Contest
The US-Iran-Israel Stand-Off: No Conflict in Sight; But for the US, No Success for Embargoes; No Ability to Constrain Nuclear Weapons. The Real War is Between Iran and Turkey.