Written by Administrator Dr Yiorghos Leventis, Director of the International Security Forum (ISF), participated upon invitation in the debates of the 25th Winter Course of the International School on Disarmament & Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO). The week long winter course held at Andalo – Trento, Italy, 8-15 January 2012,…
Read MoreWritten by Brigadier General John H. Johns It is common for candidates in presidential primaries to use bellicose language to prove their toughness. This kind of rhetoric is especially useful in Republican primaries, where audiences have a firm belief in the use of military power to solve problems. But toughness…
Read MoreWritten by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* One thing is for sure: the Eastern Mediterranean is going through interesting times. Historically, I guess, we have always been living in such times. The Mediterranean, as the etymology of the geographical name denotes, constitutes the middle of the earth, the place where multiple trade…
Read MoreWritten by Dr William Mallinson With the desperate bombing of Libya eventually petering out, I think it unlikely that the exporters and imposers of western freedom will try and attack Syria, for the following reasons. First, Turkey will not countenance the idea, since its Kurdish population would immediately latch on…
Read MoreWritten by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* On either side of the Aegean Sea a Greek tragedy, in its full sense and extent, is being performed before our eyes. As the whole world witnesses the unfolding multiple Greek tragedy – huge foreign debt leading to economic, institutional and above all moral…
Read MoreWritten by Dr. Dimitrios N. Koumparoulis Rebel forces have apparently taken more of the country’s oil refining (Zawiya) and processing infrastructure (Brega). Most observers give the Gaddafi regime limited time before a full regime change takes place in Libya. Watch what happens to oil prices if and when the Gaddafis…
Read MoreWritten by Mr. Frederic Labarre The pressures faced by NATO and EU members in meeting austerity measures while maintaining military readiness are unprecedented not by their scale and intensity, but by the conjunction of several political and social features. First, the economic crisis stimulates political isolationism and economic nationalism,…
Read MoreWritten by Mr. Simon Bahceli* Tens of thousands of mainland Turks could soon become new ‘citizens’ of the breakaway north, according to critics of an “immigration regulation” approved by the Turkish Cypriot ‘council of ministers’ yesterday. Although details of the regulation were yet to be made public, the north’s…
Read MoreWritten by Dr. Dimitrios N. Koumparoulis In an attempt to get a Grand Bargain, President Obama proposed a centrist deficit reduction package. Congressional Republicans rejected that package only because it raised taxes, and were unreasonable for doing so. Like his fiscal commission cochairs Bowles & Simpson, the President proposed a…
Read MoreWritten by Mr. Vercihan Ziflioğlu* Turkey’s Syriac community, who adopted Turkish surnames, now want their original surnames back. Yet, a top court says that the laws don’t allow such a move. Members of Turkey’s Syriac Christian community are leading a legal struggle to adopt last names that reflect their identity…
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