Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
The Islamic State’s Ardit Ferizi: Hacking Kosovo and Beyond
Ebi Spahiu The San Bernardino attacks, which left 16 dead and 24 injured, have set the tone for an intense discussion among information technology experts and security agencies about accessing “backdoor” information technology as means to prevent potential terrorist attacks. Even though social media is... MORE
Pakistan’s Militant Conspiracy Theorist: Zaid Hamid
Farhan Zahid According to a 2014 Pew Poll, a mere 14 percent of Pakistanis have favorable views of the United States (Pew Poll, July 2014). There may be other reasons for growing anti-Americanism in Pakistan but Islamist militant conspiracy theorists play a pivotal role. According... MORE
Muhammad Shafi Armar: From Indian Mujahideen to Islamic State Recruiter
Animesh Roul In late January 2016, India’s elite anti-terrorism agency, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), stumbled on an unknown extremist network, the Junood al-Khilafa-e-Hind (JKH), known to be sympathetic to the Islamic State. With the arrest of nearly 14 suspects in a countrywide search and... MORE
Berlin and Paris Soften up Kyiv Ahead of ‘Decisive’ Normandy Meeting
In Kyiv, on February 22–23, with a working visit, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier portrayed the “Normandy” group’s upcoming March 3 meeting in Paris as a make-or-break event, designed to overcome the diplomatic deadlock over “the Ukraine crisis.” The diplomatic process is stuck... MORE
Importance of Syrian Turkmen to Turkey
War-torn Syria is days away from the start of a negotiated partial ceasefire, which is supposed to temporarily end fighting between rebel groups and government forces supported by Russian supplies and bombing sorties. The ceasefire, agreed to by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his... MORE
Ukrainian Says No Elections Without Full Security in Donetsk-Luhansk
Negotiations in the Minsk Contact Group on political issues are so configured as to push Ukraine into recognizing the Moscow-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR), first de facto and then de jure, through local elections and a “special status.” For its part, Ukraine... MORE
Moscow Triumphant, as US in Full Retreat in Middle East
On February 22, which was a public holiday in Russia, President Vladimir Putin went on national television with a newsflash to announce that, after a phone call with the United States’ President Barack Obama, a US-Russian agreement was secured to declare a ceasefire in the... MORE
Why Sanctions Against Belarus Could Not Stand
The removal of the sanctions on Belarus by the European Union continues to be one of the most debated topics in the Belarusian media. The most meaningful piece about sanctions, however, has arguably shown up not in Belarus but in the Russian daily Izvestia (Izvestia,... MORE
Kazakhstan’s Delicate Balancing Act Between Turkey and Russia
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited Kazakhstan, on February 6, where he and his host government discussed bilateral cooperation on large-scale transit corridor projects (Akorda, February 6). As a “new Silk Road” of transportation infrastructure slowly emerges across Eurasia, Turkey and Kazakhstan are becoming important... MORE
Izborsky Club Says Moscow Must Block Alliance of Baltic–Black Sea States
Twenty-five years ago, Moscow’s massive nuclear weapons stockpile could not prevent the Soviet Union from falling apart, because of a conjunction of domestic problems and opposition from abroad, the influential Izborsky Club says. Today, Russia has recovered from the disasters of the 1990s; but the... MORE