In military history, bastions were defensive strongholds, mostly with
a pentagonal outline, which off ered perfect combat emplacements for
crossfi re. Th ereby, they off ered excellent advantages to defenders and
enabled counter-balancing capabilities against besiegers’ artilleries.
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a famous French military engineer,
Marshal of France (mid-17th to early 18th centuries), and a master
of the bastion system along with other fortifi cations, even designed
‘bastioned towers’ to protect main walls by fl anking enemy fi re.
Th e Warsaw Summit affi rmed Alliance interest in and commitment to
many geographic regions and nations, without stating priorities. Th e
Western Balkans drew attention, with Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro
receiving specifi c mention in the Summit Communiqué.2
However,
the Summit promoted a continuance of current NATO activity
in this region, not a shift or amelioration. Implicit in this is that the
status quo, a small NATO force in Kosovo to enhance security and
several liaison offi ces to monitor partnership activity and the application
of the Membership Action Plan in the other Western Balkans
states, is suffi cient. Th is paper will argue that such eff orts are too small
and disjointed to meet the growing challenges in the region, especially
given NATO’s obligation to confl ict prevention in the wake of its signifi
cant and successful interventions there in 1996 and 1999.
Black Sea security directly impacts the economic development, peace
and stability of the Euro-Atlantic theater. NATO and the EU, as well as
their members and partners, have immense interests in ensuring a secure
and prosperous environment in the Black Sea, advancing trade relations
through the East-West corridor, and further promoting the notion of a
Europe “whole, free and at peace.”
On 21 October 2016, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
appointed its fi rst Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and
Security (ASG-I&S), Dr. Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven.2
His appointment was the result of a meeting of the North Atlantic
Council (NAC) on 8-9 July 2016 in Warsaw, where the Heads of State
and Government stated the requirement to strengthen intelligence
within NATO.3
In doing so, the Alliance underlined that improved
cooperation on intelligence would increase early warning, force
protection and general resilience.4
The year 2014 marks a strategic ‘inflection point’ in world history.
To make sense of the new security challenges, NATO offi cials and
member states’ governments have used the term ‘hybrid warfare,’2
although some scholars have criticized it as a buzzword lacking a
clear defi nition. However, since hybrid warfare is rather more about
exploiting the vulnerabilities of statecraft than about destroying armed
forces, states have slightly diff erent understandings of it consistent
with their own specifi c security challenges. Consequently, for scientifi c
research, as well as for security organizations such as NATO, finding a
common definition is not easy and probably not useful.
Is Colombia going to be NATO’s next global partner? In June 2013,
the question was alreaady worthy of attention, when Colombia and
NATO entered into an “Agreement on the Security of Information”
that was signed between then-NATO Deputy Secretary General
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow and Colombia’s Defence Minister
Juan Carlos Pinzón. While the deal encompassed not much more
than sharing intelligence in areas of common concern, the agreement
surely was “a fi rst step for future cooperation in the security fi eld”
and Ambassador Vershbow remarked that “Colombia’s expertise in
enhancing integrity in the military is precisely the kind of substantive
contribution that exemplifi es the added value of cooperation.
To this day, a visit to NATO’s offi cial website paints a glowing account
of its 2011 military intervention in Libya under United Nations
Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973:2
Following the Gaddafi regime’s targeting of civilians in February 2011,
NATO answered the United Nation’s (UN) call to the international
community to protect the Libyan people … a coalition of NATO
Allies and partners began enforcing an arms embargo, maintaining
a no-fl y zone and protecting civilians and civilian populated areas
from attack or the threat of attack under Operation Unifi ed Protector
(OUP). OUP successfully concluded on 31 October 2011.3
While immediate operational goals may have been achieved, and
urgent threats to lives in Benghazi and elsewhere averted, more than
half a decade hence the post-intervention legacy is far from rosy. What
followed the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in October 2011 is a
Libya and neighbourhood still rife with instability and violence facing
the spectre of widespread civil strife and even collapse
Regular armies, militias, terrorist organizations, opposition factions, international powers and rights organizations, all use dead bodies of ci- vilians, soldiers and police personnel during armed conflicts in the Middle East and beyond for various reasons. Identication of dead bodies has become a dilemma for conflict-hit countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Mali, due to prevalent security chaos and the destruction of healthcare infrastructure. Moreover, involved parties tend to announce a minimized official civilian and combatant toll using only the numbers of corpses that could be carried to hospitals.
The Sudanese government recently introduced economic reforms to improve performance and attract more foreign investments. The reforms were initiated when the United States on October 6, 2017, lifted sanctions imposed on Sudan twenty years ago. Undoubtedly, the move represents a major shift for Sudan because it will help improve economic growth, stabilize the exchange market and attract more foreign capital in flows.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Russia recently conducted military strikes on several fronts in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria, especially to the south in the border town of Boukamal. These strikes were conducted to retake ISIS’ last strong- holds in Syria after the liberation of Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital, in mid-October by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia. The militia, backed the US-led coalition, controls the east side of the Euphrates river in Deir Ezzor and now is in a frantic race with al-Assad’s forces to recapture Boukamal, where Russia’s use of air and naval re- power aims to settle the battle and consolidate its presence ahead of the coming political milestones in Syria.
Topic:
International Cooperation and International Affairs