The civil war in Syria, one of the few lasting legacies of the Arab Spring, has been under way for more than two years. There has been substantial outside intervention in the war. The Iranians in particular, and the Russians to a lesser extent, have supported the Alawites under Bashar al Assad. The Saudis and some of the Gulf States have supported the Sunni insurgents in various ways. The Americans, Europeans and Israelis, however, have for the most part avoided...
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U.S. President Barack Obama is making his first visit to Israel. The visit comes in the wake of his re-election and inauguration to a second term and the formation of a new Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Normally, summits between Israel and the United States are filled with foreign policy issues on both sides, and there will be many discussed at this meeting, including Iran, Syria and Egypt. But this summit takes place in an...
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that the economy of Libya grew by more than 100 percent in 2012 driven by its oil production. Ralph Chami, a team leader from IMF said, “Economic growth in 2012 exceeded 100 percent, reflecting a strong recovery from its collapse during the revolution.” Libya’s economy was affected by the revolution in the country, which resulted to the removal of Muammar Gaddafi from power and later killed during the turmoil....
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From time to time, I will sit down to write a series of analyses on a particular topic, such as the fundamentals of terrorism series last February. Other times, unrelated events in different parts of the world are tied together by analytical threads, naturally becoming a series. This is what has happened with the last three weekly security analyses — a common analytical narrative has risen to connect them. First, we discussed how the Jan. 16 attack against the Tigantourine...
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The French military’s current campaign to dislodge jihadist militants from northern Mali and the recent high-profile attack against a natural gas facility in Algeria are both directly linked to the foreign intervention in Libya that overthrew the Gadhafi regime. There is also a strong connection between these events and foreign powers’ decision not to intervene in Mali when the military conducted a coup in March 2012. The coup occurred as thousands of heavily armed Tuareg tribesmen were returning...
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The recent jihadist attack on the Tigantourine natural gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria, and the subsequent hostage situation there have prompted some knee-jerk discussions among media punditry. From these discussions came the belief that the incident was spectacular, sophisticated and above all unprecedented. A closer examination shows quite the opposite. Indeed, very little of the incident was without precedent. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who orchestrated the attack, has employed similar tactics and a similar scale of...
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I would be surprised Today Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs chief commodity strategist put forth some comments regarding the Oil market. Jeff Currie from Frankfurt said he wouldn’t be surprised “if we woke up in summer and oil cost $150 “. Oil high established 1st Quarter The counter argument to that statement would be the following: Brent has put in its high for the year in the first quarter the past two years, and actually put...
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Hollande has ordered air strikes against rebels who have taken control of Northern Mali. French President, François Hollande, has announced that the operation would last “as long as necessary.” Mirage fighter jets, as well as combat helicopters, have been used to attack rebel strongholds. Additionally, France already has troops on the ground, including special forces fighting rebel forces in the North African country. On Friday, Hollande offered military assistance to the Malian Government. The actions by Hollande prematurely ended a...
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The United States now looks primed to go over the fiscal cliff. As the debate rages on where to cut spending and where to raise revenues, many people are beginning to question the wisdom of handing out billions of dollars in foreign aid, often to governments that are not necessarily friendly with the United States or strong supporters of American interests. Other critics question the actual effectiveness of the aid provided, and argue that...
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By EconMatters WTI closed November just shy of $89 a barrel on hopes of an improving economy. I think there is an argument for an improving economy in 2013, but it is just too early to tell how things are going to come together with the economy, and all the ramifications of basically an anti-business and social agenda political leadership of the last four years. I am not making a political statement that there...
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On Friday, news broke that General David Petraeus would be resigning from his position as CIA Director, thanks to an alleged affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Over the weekend, the story grew and now questions have emerged regarding the timing of his resignation and the outing of possibly classified information by Paula Broadwell. Regardless of the political party, frustration has been expressed on when the affair had been discovered and who knew about it. On...
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