GLOBAL ISSUES

The geometry of a relationship after the Arab Spring

Marina Eleftheriadou
(PhD candidate, Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of Peloponnese. Co-editor of the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (cemmis.edu.gr). The doctoral research, of which this paper is part, has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: Heracleitus II.)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The beauty in the simplicity of the “no war without Egypt, no peace without Syria” dictum has lent it an axiomatic importance among the scholars of the Middle Eastern affairs. However, while Kissinger’s apothegm, for decades, was used to discuss Syria’s role as a spoiler in the Arab-Israeli or Palestinian-Israeli peace process, the newly created uncertainties regarding Cairo’s  internal  dynamics,  formal  and  informal  policies  vis-à-vis  Israel  and  the  various Palestinian constituencies have brought Egypt back in the headlines. For 30 years the peace treaty signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin has spared Israel from problems stemming from its south-western borders, providing Tel Aviv with a secure rear while facing challenges from Syria and Lebanon and the Palestinian groups from inside and outside Palestine. When Hamas took over Gaza, the importance of Egyptian non-hostility became increasingly important as Cairo in fact collaborated with Israel in the latter’s effort to put pressure on Hamas in military, economic and political terms.....  Read more

Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
(Chairman of the Intl. Law & Global Pol. Studies and the author of the forthcoming book ‘Is there life after Facebook’, Addleton Academic Publishers, NY & RIEAS Member of International Advisory Board)

Copyright: www.europeworld.org

There is a claim currently circulating the EU, both cynical and misleading: ‘multiculturalism is dead in Europe’. No wonder, as the conglomerate of nation-states/EU has silently handed over one of its most important debates – that of European identity – to the wing-parties, recently followed by the several selective and contra-productive foreign policy actions...  Read more

Aguezeala Alban Chimezie
(Postgraduate Researcher, University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Nigeria a great African nation is facing serious security challenges during the last few years. These challenges not only threaten the lives and property of its citizenry but also have implications for its territorial integrity as well as well for the entire global system. Unarguably one of the major security challenges confronting Nigeria today is the Boko Haram insurgency. Perhaps what Gregory Ochiagha calls ‘the emerging culture of death’ has assumed eccentric and ludicrous proportion in Nigeria given the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents......  Read more

Prof Alozieuwa Simeon Onyemachi Hilary
(Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja, Nigeria)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) - www.rieas.gr – based in Athens, Greece (Date of Publication: 25 January 2014)

Nigeria has come under serious security challenge in the last couples of years. The security dilemma is epitomized by the Jamatu’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’wati wal-Jihad, (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teaching and Jihad) or its faction, Ansaru- all generically known as the Boko Haram (Western civilization is forbidden). …  Read more

Simeon H.O. Alozieuwa, PhD
(Department of Defense and Security Studies, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja, Nigeria)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies – www.rieas.gr  - based in Athens, Greece. (Publication Date: 10 March 2014)

Introduction

Until lately, discourse on piracy in Africa revolved around the criminal activities by the hijackers in the East African waters, and symbolized mainly by their illicit activities around the Gulf of Eden and Somali Basin. The recently-released “Captain Phillips” a Hollywood portrayal of the 2009 hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates off the coast of Somalia perhaps illustrates rather poignantly this type of criminality in the region.

The face of piracy in Africa has however assumed a new dimension.  A 2013 report by the South African-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), notes that just as large scale piracy around the Somali Basin appears on the wane, there has been an increase in piracy incidents off the West African coast, particularly, the Gulf of Guinea. Unlike the Gulf of Eden -Somali Basin piracy which revolves around commercial fishing activities and ransom, the new face of piracy in Africa around the Gulf of Guinea is about oil. .... Read more

Quentin de Pimodan
(Author based in the Middle East)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication Date: 8 September 2014

Al Baghdadi's major strategic failure has been his choice of the Fertile Crescent as the region for the establishment of his Khilafa. His dream of reestablishing a Sunni caliphate with roots in Iraq and Syria will eventually be crushed by the field's realities and only exposes his own lack of knowledge about the region. Not that a Sunni leadership would be impossible to carry on the lands of the ancient Omayyad and Abbasid's caliphates , but rather the intransigence and intolerance he, and his followers are using in order to realize it..... Read more