A Look at the Eurozone After the Vote on Scottish Independence: More Fissures on the Way?

10/10/2014
By Harald Malmgren Eurozone politics are currently being reformulated as the result of a rise in right-wing economic nationalism sentiment and growing Euro-skepticism. In Germany, the FDP pro-market, conservative minority party had for decades been an important counterbalance to left socialist pressures in German economic policy.  Today, the FDP has…

In Iraq: Back to the Tribes

10/10/2014
2014-10-10 By Amatzia Baram In October 2006 and more so since early 2007, more than three years into the insurgency in Iraq the US decided to approach the Sunni tribes in a systematic way for cooperation against al-Qa`ida. By late 2008 with the Surge and through cooperation with the Sunni…

Analyzing Peace Mission 2014: China and Russia Exercise with the Central Asian States

10/08/2014
2014-10-08 By Richard Weitz From August 24-29, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held “Peace Mission 2014” at China’s Zhurihe Training Base, in Inner Mongolia in North China. This is China’s base for engaging in large-scale exercises with foreign armies on its soil. Peace Mission 2014 was the largest military exercise…

An Update on The Brazilian Presidential Election: Brazil Shapes Its Way Forward in the World

10/07/2014
2014-10-07 By Kenneth Maxwell The first round of the most tightly contested Brazilian Presidential election in recent memory, which took place on Sunday (5th October 2014), has continued to produce surprises. 143 million Brazilians voted. Since 1996 100% of the voting has been by direct recoding electoral voting machines. So the results…