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31.10.2017
On October 27, 2017, the Catalan Parliament declared unilateral independence from Spain. The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed to “restore legality” as reported by AFP. Is Catalonia looking to repeat the tragic events it experienced during the 1930s? Spain is insisting on maintaining a Catholic marriage with Catalonia: Once you are in, there is no way out! Why this reaction? To answer this question, let’s go back to the early 1990s when the breakup of Yugoslavia …
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30.10.2017
The decline of the West and the rise of the rest, to use Fareed Zakaria’s terms, amount to an erosion of the foundation – Western dominance – on which the liberal international order was built. Unlike other post-war American presidents, Donald Trump is keen to tear down this order, but for now his short attention span and general cluelessness have limited the damage. While Trump’s intent is destructive, to many observers Trump is merely bringing forward the end of an …
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28.10.2017
It is difficult to address South Africa’s perspective towards the establishment of an Independent Kurdish State without addressing South Africa’s strategic outlook for the world at large and the Middle Eastern region in particular. However, what of interest to question is how far can the prime parties to the current intra- Iraq conflict benefit from the vision and practices of South Africa in strengthening national unity and national integration. A “new Iraq” is truly …
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19.10.2017
The transnational capitalist class is pouring billions of dollars into the rapid digitalization of global capitalism as the latest outlet for its surplus accumulated capital and hedging its bets on new investment opportunities in a global police state. But will these ballooning sectors of the global economy allow the world capitalist system to avoid another catastrophic crisis? Reports from international agencies and international economic data indicate a resounding …
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14.10.2017
Indians and Kurds have cultural connections whereby Hindi and the Kurdish languages have some common words. Interestingly the Kurds celebrated Nowruz (The New Year) with the other Asian cultural communities (Persians, Azeri, Afghani, Pakistani etc.). It is informative to note that in the educational field India is a favourable destination for Kurdish students registering for masters and bachelor degrees. Indeed, the region opened its doors for more than 500 Kurdish …
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12.10.2017
On October 5, 2017, King Salman met with President Putin to the surprise of many observers who speculated about this historic visit. According to some analysts, it is a shift towards Russia at the expense of the US where the focus is on talks about the on-going oil crisis and the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts. These speculations are understandable since one of the US’ most reliable Arab allies is meeting the “enemy” on its turf. Such a visit holds a particular …
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10.10.2017
One of the neglected reasons behind the Russian military intervention in Syria in September 2015 is directly related to the involvement of the armed groups located in the North Caucasus to the Syrian civil war (Fatih Özbay). The anticipated risk of possible terror attacks that would be carried out by these belligerent groups when they return to Russia poses direct threats to Russian national security. According to the information received from Russian sources dated 10th …
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6.10.2017
It is striking to see a comment by the Russian’s Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov prior to the publication of the 25/9 Kurdish referendum result recognizing Kurds’ special independent status when he stated: “Russia’s position is the one in favour of territorial integrity of the regional state”. Ironically, his comments can be interpreted as directed to both Iraq and the KRG. In his meetings with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Putin reiterated the Russian …
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4.10.2017
Structural factors undoubtedly shape international politics, but there is no consensus about what are the relevant structures. Offensive realists stress the importance of anarchy as the primary condition, with international relations determined by the struggle for power and predominance by an international system populated by ‘billiard ball’ states, in which domestic regimes and systems of governance are irrelevant. At the other extreme are constructivists, who argue …
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30.9.2017
The highly acclaimed result of the Kurdish referendum delivered a decisive yes vote (More than 92%) for the creation of a new aspired Independent Kurdish state may change (though not necessarily) the geopolitical dynamics beyond the Middle East. The referendum called by Masoud Al-Barzani the illegal President of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) is the first concrete daring step for Iraqi Kurds to realize a more than a century dream of launching an independent …
