Category: Analysis

West finally adapting to hybrid warfare

     

  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is developing a new strategy to speed decision-making and improve its response to the kind of unconventional warfare the West says Russia has used… Read more »

Aleppo: the Sarajevo – and Munich – of Syria?

     

  Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, now virtually encircled by the Syrian Army, may prove to be the Sarajevo of Syria. It is already the Munich, Roger Cohen writes for The… Read more »

Asia’s democratic regression fuels rise of Islamist militants

     

  Today, few people are touting democracy in Southeast Asia as an example of political freedoms, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Joshua Kurlantzick. In Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and… Read more »

Turkey’s Erdogan getting off democracy train?

     

Under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (A.K.P.) presented itself as a Western, reformist, neo-liberal and secular party, and, as late as 2012, 16 EU… Read more »

Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’ image in danger

     

The sale of Corbis, a photography archive owned by Bill Gates, gives the new owner, Visual China Group, control over photographs of immense cultural and commercial value, including Marilyn Monroe… Read more »

Saudis facing similar problems to collapsing Soviet Union

     

Saudi Arabia has ordered the segregation of men and women in local council meetings, in a setback to women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom, The Wall Street Journal reports. The… Read more »

Political turbulence: 21st century parties and social media

     

  Social media do shape collective action through, for example, “micro-donations” which make it easy to join a cause, says Professor Helen Margetts, co-author of a new book, “Political Turbulence”:… Read more »

Venezuela – too late to avoid catastrophe

     

  As markets brace themselves for the negative effects of the decline in oil prices, Venezuela will probably be the first big domino to fall, notes Ricardo Hausmann, the director… Read more »

Xi’s new ‘core’ leader status highlights China’s power struggle

     

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has already grasped more power more quickly than his two recent predecessors, and he has shown a taste for audacious decisions and a loathing for dissent…. Read more »