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In The News

Rumblings Of War Against Venezuela? A Trap For Colombia

The Venezuelan crisis impacts Colombia directly. But military intervention, as hinted by Trump, could be disastrous.

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In The News

Nicaraguan Regime Crackdown Is A Humanitarian Emergency

Police and pro-government paramilitaries have killed more than 200 people — including a 14-month-old boy — since a wave of anti-Ortega protests began in mid April.

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Eyes on the U.S. Syria Crisis Trump And The World

Will Washington Finally Let The Middle East Fight Its Own Battles?

FORT POLK — In training exercises in a mock Afghan village constructed here on a base amid swampland, the U.S. Army is applying the military lesson of the war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq: Help your partners beat the enemy, but don’t try to do the fighting yourself. Letting others fight the battle hasn’t been the American way in modern times, to our immense national frustration. The U.S. military became bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, much as it had a generation earlier in Vietnam, by trying to reshape societies with U.S. firepower. For the military, the […]

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Geopolitics Ukraine Winter

How An Aggressive Russia Reveals NATO Weakness

BRUSSELS — The Ukraine crisis and Russia’s aggressive behavior have hit NATO right between the eyes. Utterly caught off guard, the defense alliance has begun asking itself how it must react, both in the short-term actions, as well as bigger questions about NATO’s role for the future. The pressure to be decisive has a firm […]

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Geopolitics

The Inevitable Failure Of Successful Foreign Interventions

Since the end of the Cold War, from the Middle East to Africa, almost every military intervention carried out by the world’s top powers leads to regime change. But rarely to stability.

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Exiled in Beirut: Upper-Class Syrian Youth Examine Lost Illusions

BEIRUT — Meeting for a drink, Lina, Ali and Johnny at first blush seem like normal young people enjoying a pleasant social gathering. But there is also heartbreak behind what has brought them so far from their homes in Damascus. Friends since childhood, these upper middle-class Syrians gather at one of their usual cafés lining […]

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Next Door To Syria, Fears In Beirut Of “Total War” Scenario

Though Russia’s proposed diplomatic solution casts doubt over a U.S. military strike in Syria, Lebanese fear being caught in the middle if the fire spreads across the entire region.

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Geopolitics Mondo

How The World Reacted To Russia’s Diplomatic Proposal For Syria

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will hold off on plans for a military strike in Syria if the country agrees to surrender its chemical weapons to international gatekeepers, as Russia suggested Monday. But Obama has doubts that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Western countries are convinced was responsible for gassing his […]

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Ideas Syria Crisis

Indecision In Syria: The West’s Public Opinion Problem

A strange thing has happened on the way to the war in Syria: U.S. public opinion, like in Turkey, has lined up this time alongside Europe’s perennial reflex against intervention.

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Geopolitics

Assad Warns France Not To Attack Syria

LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS — Bashar al-Assad warned France not to launch a military strike, which the Syrian president said would support terrorism against the interests of the Syrian people. In an exclusive interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad said that should Paris take part in a military intervention, “there will be repercussions, […]

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Geopolitics Ideas Syria Crisis

Remember Bosnia? Intervening In Syria Must Be More Than Just Punishment

Syria is more reminiscent of the Balkan wars in the 1990s than Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s imperative for the West to act to force Assad’s hand, not just to slap his wrist.

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Exclusive: French President Hollande Says “Retaliation” Necessary In Syria

“I would not call it a war, but the sanction of a monstrous violation of human rights,” the French president tells Le Monde.

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Geopolitics Ideas Syria Crisis

Syria, Why The West Can’t Turn Back Now

After the chemical attacks, military intervention is a question of humanity, but also of realpolitik. That does not, however, mean it will resolve the situation in Syria.

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Economy

Markets Fall, Oil Prices Rise As Syria Spooks Investors

REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON — Oil prices have risen to a five-month high, stock share prices are falling, and demand for safe-haven assets has risen amid international fears about the Syrian crisis and the anticipation of U.S. and possibly European military intervention there, Reuters reports. After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said […]

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Geopolitics

Breakaway Mali Islamist Miliant Group Calls For Peace Talks

AFP, FRANCE 24 (France), REUTERS Worldcrunch BAMAKO- Two weeks after the start of the French military intervention in Mali, the Ansar Dine Islamist militant group has split into two, with the dissident faction calling for peace negotiations. The dissident group is calling itself the Islamic Movement of Azawad (MIA) according to France 24. In a […]

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Geopolitics

Report: Syria Crossed Chemical Weapons “Red Line,” But West Got Cold Feet

Sources tell Le Monde that the Syria regime fired rockets with a non-lethal chemical agent during a deadly Dec. 23 attack in Homs. So why didn’t Western leaders follow through on their threats?

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Geopolitics

In Mali’s Capital, Where France Is Now Revered — And Al Qaeda Is The Enemy

France’s just launched military intervention in Mali has earned the old colonial power praise from those fearing Islamist extremists. The fight, however, has only just begun.

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Geopolitics

France At War: Military Intervention Launched In Mali

LE MONDE, LIBERATION, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – France has launched a military intervention in Mali, with President François Hollande declaring that the “terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists” in the northern part of the country “show a brutality that threatens us all.” In the declaration late Friday, Hollande added that the operation would […]

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Geopolitics

UN Evacuates Staff From Central African Republic As Situation Deteriorates

FRANCE 24 (France), BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch BANGUI – The United Nations has evacuated its non-essential staff from the Central African Republic, while the U.S. urged its nationals to leave as rebels closed in on the capital, reports France 24. The United Nations ordered more than 200 non-essential staff and families of […]

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Geopolitics

New Turmoil In Mali As Prime Minister Is Arrested, Forced To Resign

REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – Mali“s Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra announced his resignation on Tuesday, hours after being arrested by soldiers while trying to leave for France, reports Reuters. Diarra addressed the nation on national television saying: “Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and […]

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Geopolitics

Exclusive: NATO Chief Urges Readiness For Military Intervention In Syria

BRUSSELS – Over good food and drink, the dinner Tuesday of all of NATO’s foreign ministers was meant to be an informal exchange of the different points of view on the Middle East. But before the main course had been served most of the ministers had lost their appetite: The alliance’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh […]

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