A meeting among leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, during any other year in the past, would not make the news. This year’s meeting, however, should matters. Yet, it was hardly covered in Western media. There are important reasons for why the world should pay attention to this 21-year-old intergovernmental organization (IGO). Read more
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by Ahmed E. Souaiaia * The power of the United States was born out of the violence of the world wars of the 20th century. For nearly 100 years, the United States enjoyed economic and military supremacy, which enable it to lead the Western bloc and to enjoy unprecedented peace and prosperity. Another war in Read more
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by Mohamed Ibrahim The 1997 National Security Concept of Russia identified Russia as an “influential European and Asian power” and recommended that Russia maintain an equal distance in relations with global European and Asian economic and political actors, while the 2000 Foreign Policy Concept referred to the Russian Federation as its “superpower.” Responsibility for maintaining Read more
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Hosni Mahalli* Some Western commentators are now talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to revive the legacy of the Soviet Union, who previously said “its collapse caused the disintegration of historical Russia”. Others have pointed to Putin’s religious and sectarian calculations in his military intervention in Ukraine. The roots of these accounts go back Read more
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According to many sources, an agreement on re-instating the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 is likely, and the terms of its provisions have begun to take shape. Here are some of the sticky points that Iran is insisting on and that are likely to be part of the agreement: What the IRI Read more
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On July 25, the president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, cited article 80 of the ratified 2014 constitution to declare a national emergency. The presidential order suspended the parliament for 30 days, dismissed the prime minister, and lifted immunity on parliamentarians. Here is a translation of the article that the president is relying on to justify Read more
Continue ReadingBy Ahmed E Souaiaia* Abstract: On May 11, 2019, the US federal government indicted 50 individuals, charging them with bribery and fraud in a widespread college admission scandal involving wealthy parents, coaches, administrators, and business executives, paying bribes to buy their children’s way into the nation’s elite schools. For weeks thereafter, the public discourse had Read more
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