Category: Middle East

By Baher Kamal* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

CAIRO (IDN) – Not that nuclear issues are an actual source of concern to Egyptian citizens. They are deeply worried about their present and immediate future now that inter-religious violence is on the rise, triggering a dangerous, growing insecurity amidst an overwhelming popular discontent with President Mohamed Morsi’s regime. Simply put, there is too much frustration and deception here to think of nukes.

Nevertheless, it is also a fact that the governments of Arabs countries in general, and in the Gulf region in particular – following reported U.S. political pressures – have lately been expressing increasing fear of Iran’s nuclear programme and therefore focusing, again, on nukes.

By: Patrick Johnson* | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

TORONTO (IDN | Geopoliticalmonitor.com) – South Sudan may have taken most of Sudan’s known energy reserves with it when it voted for independence in 2011, but that doesn’t mean Khartoum has given up on keeping Sudan in the mix of Africa’s key energy players. Eyeing a bounce back, Sudan has been courting energy companies worldwide with the promise of untapped resources in Sudan. And given the relatively raw nature of these unexplored blocks, the strategy could conceivably bear fruit over the medium term.

By Ernest Corea* | IDN-InDepth News Analysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Anniversaries are usually treated as occasions for celebration. They are given special names as in “golden” for a fiftieth anniversary and “tin” for a tenth. Goodwill is in the air, food and drinks are brought out, and “don’t worry, be happy” is the overarching theme for all concerned. Not so in contemporary Iraq, where the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of that country fell on March 19, 2013. The event was not commemorated with joyous activity. Instead, murder and mayhem prevailed.

International news agencies reported that Baghdad was wracked by death and destruction on the tenth anniversary of the invasion. Over 50 people were reported dead in a wave of bombings that ripped through the capital and its environs.

By Mandip Singh* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW DELHI (IDN | IDSA) – As a part of its modernization plan to fight wars under conditions of informationalisation, the PLA has embarked upon an ambitious effort to induct, educate, train and prepare its rank and file to meet the challenges of future wars. A well-conceived and planned Professional Military Education (PME) programme is underway for Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and junior officers. The aim is to raise the bar of the personnel educational standards of the PLA in order to imbibe new generation high technologies and weapon systems.

Thus college degrees and university tie-ups to recruit the modern NCO and junior officer corps have become popular while technical education is limited to one to three month courses at military centres or online before becoming NCOs. While this may produce well-read and technically savvy junior leaders, what needs to be evaluated are the intangibles in the modernization and Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) of the PLA leadership and motivation.

By Michael Felsen* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BOSTON (IDN | CGNews) – Like so much else that touches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a just-released three-year-long study of how textbooks on both sides portray the “other” has provoked a firestorm of controversy.

The fruit of a seed first planted in 2008 by a post-Annapolis Conference committee of Israelis and Palestinians dedicated to promoting education on tolerance, building a culture of peace, and preventing incitement, the study has succeeded in generating more heat than light, at least as far as the Israeli government is concerned. But a closer look suggests there is much to be learned – both from the study and from the responses to it.

By Zachary Fillingham* | Geopoliticalmonitor.com
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TORONTO (IDN) – Opposition troops in Syria have largely come to be referred to as the Free Syria Army (FSA), but this title belies the fact that the anti-Assad side of the civil war equation is composed of several disparate groups, all with conflicting visions for a post-Assad Syria. In reality, the FSA was born out of a group of largely Sunni Syrian Army deserters led by Riyad al-Assad, and that is likely more or less the composition that remains to this day.

By Ajey Lele* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW DELHI (IDN | IDSA) – Iran has successfully sent a monkey to space and also retrieved it back alive. Has Iran thereby “made a ‘monkey’ of its adversaries”? Or was this demonstration just a smokescreen to experiment with its ballistic missile capabilities? Or is it actually a signal to the rest of the world about Iran’s technological progress?

By K. P. Fabian*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis | Gateway House

Despite heavy opposition from several factions, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s propositions for altering the constitution have been approved. Although the alterations have democratic elements, the liberals and secularists bear responsibility in taking forward Egypt’s journey to complete democracy.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – On December 22, 2012, the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, got approval through a referendum for a much-contested altered Constitution. Will this prove to be Pyrrhic victory, won at too high a cost? [1]

By Bernhard Schell
IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BAGHDAD (IDN) – Iraq has undergone drastic changes in the last ten years since the ‘regime change’, but the transition to democracy has failed to pave the way for development. Though the government announced a strategy for poverty reduction in 2009, the efforts, resources and follow-up measures have not been fetched noticeable results on the ground, according to the Iraqi Al Amal Association.

By Ernest Corea*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — The Israeli government’s desire to extract revenge from the Palestinians for the recognition that the international community has bestowed on the Palestinian Authority (PA) is offensive and inconsistent with the norms of appropriate diplomatic conduct.

The planned revenge is doubly repugnant because Israel wants to direct its punitive ire at Palestinians for action taken by 138 of the world’s established nations.