The Islamic State of Iraq, an branch of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), took credit for last night’s massacre at a Baghdad church that killed 52 Iraqi, claiming the attack was designed to avenge the treatment of Muslim women in Egypt.
As President Obama prepares to go to India for a three-day state visit, U.S. policy pundits are busy proffering ideas for the bilateral agenda.
Tomorrow voters in California will decide whether or not to approve Proposition 19, legalizing marijuana in the state. The Atlantic magazine just published a transcript in which they ask five Mexico experts what they think the result might be on Mexico. Initially, the respondents’ opine on the parallel between Colombia and Mexico. Robert Bonner, former […]
The Future This dispute could be settled with a classic “land swap”, such as China’s Western claim for India’s eastern one; which is already the international accepted status quo. In fact China has already proposed this twice, once in the the 1950s and again in the early 1980s. Russia struck a similar deal with China […]
I’d written earlier with some thoughts on how to cut apart the Taliban in Afghanistan from their Al Qaeda counterparts. Broadly, I’d argued that one needed to separate out the incentives and motivations (en bloc) of the Taliban from their foreign, multi-national, globalist counterparts. Separated out– as hanafis (nationalist jihadis) and salafis (globalist jihadis)– NATO […]
Europe in the past has seen its fair share of successful (and unsuccessful) mass movements descending in the street and clamoring for justice of course. The 1968-69 demonstrations spectacularly failed (Prague) or led to ambiguous changes in the social life styles of society difficult to measure (Germany, France). The 1989 mobilizations were an unequivocal success […]
Most of us writing and following the Middle East can easily describe the region and its politics as dynamic. Priorities can change anytime and without anticipation. This can be attributed to the vast pool of players in the region and their ideologies and interests. A decade ago, after Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon, Hezbollah announced […]
Readers of the FPA blog network have assuredly noticed an exchange of opinions between fellow blogger Rob Grace and I. In a very well thought-out critique of my previous post that the United Nations is anti-Israel, Rob contends that I “misread” the true nature of that global body, which he says is actually pro-Israel. His […]
It was obvious a year ago that the 2010 midterms were going to be about domestic issues, specifically the economy, jobs, and health care. But it was hard to predict just how little foreign policy, the Afghanistan war included, would play in this political season. The war in Afghanistan has to be considered the top […]
Dear Readers: I am Reza Akhlaghi, presiding over the Iran page on FPA Blogs. Our Iran page is presently experiencing technical difficulties, so in the interim I have been invited to be a guest blogger here on the Middle East page “. So please stay tuned as my first piece here will be posted on […]
It has been eight years since the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCPs) first peaceful transfer of power, an act which heralded Hu Jintao’s ascension to China’s highest positions of power. Xi Jinping Once again China embarks on a change of helmsmen. On October 18th of this year, Mr. Xi Jingping (习近平)was selected for the position of […]
Israel’s changing demographics are always a touchy subject, with some Israeli politicians arguing that higher Arab birth-rates will result in Jews becoming a minority, while some researchers contend that Arab and Jewish birth rates are actually very similar. Regardless of whether the Jewish, Arab or other populations are on the rise, these people still need […]
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