Every week, a selection of leading experts answer a new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign and security policy challenges shaping Europe’s role in the world.
The battle that pitted the Lebanese Armed Forces against Islamist extremist groups led by the Islamic State (ISIS) in the border town of Arsal in early August 2014 has exposed a web of intertwined problems in Lebanon.
The specter of terrorism in Tunisia may force a postponement of planned parliamentary and presidential elections and derail the country's political transition – the Arab Spring’s only apparent success story.
Libya is clearly entering a dangerous new phase, but conventional readings of its politics misdiagnose the problem and offer solutions that will fail or even make things worse.
The radical jihadi group known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A little bit more than twenty years after it first appeared, this on-going transformation has made it less connected to Uzbekistan, and more to a global jihad.
Proposed amendments to Jordan’s anti-terror law threaten free expression and may exacerbate the very problem they are hoping to address.
If the investigators’ verdict on the Malaysia Airlines plane crash does eventually fall against Russia, Vladimir Putin will survive politically, but will have to work hard to restore faith in him, and his good fortune.
With the international investigation of the Malaysian plane crash yet to begin in earnest, the West will base its understanding on evidence supplied mainly by the United States and Russia will see Western actions as punishment not for shooting down the plane, but rather for Moscow’s position on Ukraine.
South Asia’s future remains clouded with uncertainty. The upcoming U.S. exit from Afghanistan, the radicalization across the region, and persisting political rivalries continue to impede regional growth and economic integration.
An independent inquiry into the Malaysia Airlines plane crash over eastern Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire by all sides could be the first step in a process to reverse the trend toward mutual destruction within Ukraine and beyond.


















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