Eastern Europe

By RFE/RL | – – It may not be the original version of the first . . . edition of the Koran, dating back 1,500 years, but it’s still quite a book. In a meeting heavily publicized by Russian media, President Vladimir Putin on November 23 gave Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei one of the […]

Featured

‘Very Soon’ US forces will Arrive in Syria; Russia bombs near Turkey

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey’s government is very unhappy today about developments in Syria. President Obama’s special envoy, Brett McGurk, said Sunday that the some 50 men from special operations forces will arrive in Syria in the very near future. But Turkey has been upset that the US troops will […]

Featured

“For Paris” on Russian Missiles hitting Syria as ISIL Oil Facilities Targeted

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Coment) | – – the Syrian observatory said that the Russian strikes on the eastern province of Deir al-Zor killed 36 on Friday. Meanwhile, Russia also bombed positions in Idlib and other provinces, including with a cruise missile, which, according to the Russian foreign minister, killed 600 fighters of Daesh […]

European Union

Can European Union, Russia & US team up to defeat ISIL?

contributors

By Georgi Gotev & Aline Robert | (EurActiv.com) | – – Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has teamed up with French President François Hollande in seeking a ‘rapprochement’ with Russia to fight [the so-called] Islamic State [group], described by both as the biggest threat to the EU. Jean-Claude Juncker [European Commission] Juncker spoke on Wednesday (18 […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Grand Alliance against ISIL: Can Putin come in from the Cold?

contributors

By Brian Whitmore | ( RFE/RL ) | – – He wasn’t ostracized. He wasn’t isolated. And certainly nobody threatened to shirtfront him. In the space of a year, Vladimir Putin has gone from being the pariah of Brisbane to being the star of Antalya. The contrast between last year’s G20 summit in Australia and […]

Barack Obama

A New Yalta? Can France Craft an alliance of Putin & Obama against Daesh/ISIL?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – French President Francois Hollande is seeking a new relationship with Russia after the attacks on Paris by Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and the Russian conclusion that a bomb downed a Russian airliner in Egypt’s Sinai last month. Le Monde reports that France and Russia have agreed on […]

France

Paris attacks: how effective has the military response been?

contributors

By Scott Lucas | (The Conversation) | – – Even as Parisians were trying to assess the scale of the attacks by Islamic State (IS) which killed 132 people on November 13, politicians were promising a decisive and effective military response. French President Francois Hollande assured, “We will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic […]

European Union

Splintering World: Looking Back on the Great Collapse from 2050

contributors

By John Feffer | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let me start with a confession. I’m old-fashioned and I have an old-fashioned profession. I’m a geo-paleontologist. That means I dig around in archives to exhume the extinct: all the empires and federations and territorial unions that have passed into history. I practically created the profession of […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Putin’s Dilemma: How To Respond If A Bomb Caused Sinai Air Crash

contributors

By Steve Gutterman | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Mounting evidence that an onboard bomb brought down the Russian jet that crashed on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people, poses a tough new dilemma for President Vladimir Putin: how to respond. If the theory of a terrorist attack is borne out, it will look […]