The fall of Mosul, allegedly to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is not the military victory it has been made out to be. For a start, as the New York Times and Agence France-Presse report, ISIS gunmen (who faced an army outnumbering them fifty-to-one) were able to occupy strategic positions around the city only after Iraqi commanders ordered their troops to stand down and retreat.
Read More »Middle East and North Africa
Back to the Quagmire: Beyond Diplomacy in Syria
Whilst there is reason to be positive about the ongoing Geneva negotiations between the Assad government and the opposition, the general consensus is that there is little chance of these talks leading to any substantial progress. The reason for this underlying feeling is as clear as it is familiar, the rebels ultimately demand Assad goes, Assad refuses to do so.
Read More »Syria: The Wages of Inaction
The unrest in Syria has quickly spiralled beyond a sectarian civil war and into a regional crisis.
Read More »Not nearly enough of the President’s men: Obama’s Inaction is quietly devastating the Middle East
While the Middle East is going through one of the most turbulent periods in history, America is governed by one of the most, if not the most, risk-averse post-war Presidents. The consequences of this unfortunate match are devastating, far-reaching and long-lasting.
Read More »Iran: The Point of No Return
In the current round of nuclear talks with Iran, the international community must not be guided by dreams but by reality. Too often, the world has been deceived by the regime in Tehran. The sanctions have to be kept in place.
Read More »Senior Fellow Jacob Campbell: In Syria, the West is Too Late the Hero
Senior Fellow Jacob Campbell's article published in The Algemeiner on Western Foreign Policy in Syria. When the Syrian Support Group, the fundraising wing of the Free Syrian Army, was set up in Washington DC, I joined it to volunteer my services. I did so because I was frustrated at the reluctance of Western governments to arm Syria’s freedom fighters against the tyrant, Bashar al-Assad.
Read More »Senior Fellow John Slinger: ‘Never again’ to ‘Always Prevent’
The recent Halabja commemoration proves that the ‘three Rs’ of remembrance, recognition and retelling are not enough. ‘Never again’ must become ‘always prevent’.‘From Denial To Recognition. From Destruction To Construction.
Read More »Senior Fellow John Slinger: Syria Needs Our Help, Not Pity
Senior Fellow John Slinger's article published in the Huffington Post, shows Kofi Annan's exit, stage left, symbolises not the death of diplomacy, which never had more than a walk-on part in this tragedy, but instead the triumph of cynical, nihilistic realpolitik over all that is represented by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Read More »Syria: No, we are not better off now
When will we learn that, where Islamism is involved, we have to get involved early and not late? We may well look back in years to come and ask ourselves why it was that we managed to lose on two fronts; not only that we let thousands of civilians be massacred, but also created the ideal conditions for a new generation of terrorists to boot.
Read More »The Yom Kippur War: Forty Years Later
Yom Kippur, October 6th 1973, at five minutes past two precisely, 4,000 artillery pieces, 250 aircraft and dozens of FROG missiles struck Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and the Sinai, at the same time along the Golan Heights 1,400 tanks advanced towards Israel.
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