EDITORIAL

Ely Karmon
(Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC( in Herzlyia, Israel).

Copyright: International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), Herzlyia, Israel.
RIEAS Publication date: 20 August 2017
Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

From the information published by the media, most of it from official sources - police and local politicians - a profile of the terrorist cell responsible for the Barcelona and Cambrils vehicle attacks emerges.

The sequence of events

Alcanar

The series of events began on the night of August 16, at 23:17, when a huge explosion destroyed a house in the city of Alcanar, some 200km. south-west of Barcelona, killed at first one person and left seven wounded. Initially the blast was blamed on a gas explosion, as some 20 canisters of propane and butane were found in the ruins. The body of a woman was discovered among rubble along with a man who was taken to hospital in a critical condition. The house had been occupied for just a few months before the blast...Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Adviser)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 6 August 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Tag of war between the White House and Congress is part of the routine of American politics. But it is not without risk. Democrats, still reeling from their humiliating defeat in the November 2016 election, are desperate to undermine and wound President Trump in any way they can irrespective of costs to the United States. Republicans, meantime, are of two minds about the Trump presidency. The party elite, still smarting from Trump’s easily eliminating all “proper” candidates to win the nomination, is stand-offish, if not negative, towards the president...Read more

A snapshot of recent Bulgarian-Turkish Foreign Policy Exchanges and Security Dynamics

Dr. Kiril Avramov
(Assistant Professor of Political Science,
Department of Political Science, New Bulgarian University)

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
― John Lydgate

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 26 July 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

A bit of a background

Despite the turbulent events and constant internal and foreign policy tensions in Turkey prior and following the failed coup d’état in July 2016 the Bulgarian foreign policy has strived to maintain a so-called “pragmatic approach” in dealing with its large and restless neighbor. The Bulgarian foreign policy and security apparatus while acknowledging the trends and dynamics of Turkish foreign and security policy that has undergone a dramatic stage of transformation from “zero problems with neighbors policy” ( ) to almost “zero friends” in its immediate vicinity and beyond, has maintained a relatively stable line of steadily pragmatic strategic approach that excludes antagonism and harsh criticism of Erdogan’s regime and policies...Read more

Quentin de Pimodan

(Co-author of The Khaleeji Voice, six-part book series about each of the GCC nations and their respective urban art cultures)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 1 July 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Considering the supposed list of demands from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), handled to Qatar through Kuwait mediation and leaked to the press, one can objectively raises the question.
This famous list has been at the heart of the crisis between Qatar and its former GCC partners and neighbors which entered its third week since the cutting off diplomatic relations with the small peninsula at the beginning of June...Read more

Q & A

Tassos Symeonides
(Academic Adviser, RIEAS)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 18 June 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Intelligence Studies academic programs are proliferating. Is this a “Renaissance” of Strategic Studies in modified, more “current” incarnation?
Intelligence Studies, as a distinct academic field, is a recent development going back to the first tentative steps of the 1950s as the Cold War took hold of superpower strategies. In contrast, Strategic Studies, is ancient by comparison, its first proponents as an organized academic endeavor appearing as early as the 18th century...Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(Academic Adviser, RIEAS)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 4 June 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Forty two years ago this past April, the United States abandoned South Vietnam in great disarray. The images of the chaotic exodus from Saigon and other parts of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975 are indelibly printed upon the collective American memory. Ever since that fateful day, “the lessons of Vietnam” have been ..Read more