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2. January 2018 Issue
- Author:
- Fernando Reinares, Carola Garcia-Calvo, Paul Cruickshank, Michael Knights, Matther Levitt, Matthew Dupee, and Anouar Boukhars
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- CTC Sentinel
- Institution:
- The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
- Abstract:
- During the course of nine hours in August 2017, a terrorist cell carried out two vehicle-ramming attacks in Catalonia, with the first striking pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas promenade in the heart of Barcelona. In our cover article, Fernando Reinares and Carola García-Calvo draw on judicial documents and interviews with investigators to provide the inside story of the worst terrorist attack in Spain since the 2004 Madrid bombings. Their account reveals the 10-man cell of ‘homegrown’ radicals, led by an extremist Moroccan cleric in the town of Ripoll, had initially planned to carry out vehicle bomb attacks in Barcelona and possibly Paris, but changed and accelerated their plans after they accidentally blew up their bomb factory where they were manufacturing TATP. While it is still not clear whether the cell had any contact with the Islamic State, the authors reveal that the network behind the November 2015 Paris attacks was also plotting to launch a similar attack in Barcelona that year. This month’s interview feature is with Nicholas Rasmussen, who retired as the head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) at the end of 2017. Michael Knights and Matthew Levitt draw on interviews with Bahraini security officials to outline how Shi`a militant cells in the country have evolved from easily detectible groups of amateurs to small cells of attackers with overseas training and combat experience and the ability to mount effective IED attacks. Matthew DuPée looks at the threat to the Taliban from other insurgent groups. Anouar Boukhars examines the potential jihadi windfall from the militarization of Tunisia’s border region with Libya. This issue is the first to be launched on the Combating Terrorism Center’s redesigned website, which is also being unveiled. The new, easy-to-search, interactive interface showcases the important scholarship contained in CTC Sentinel over the past decade, as well as all the research published by the Combating Terrorism Center since its founding almost 15 years ago.
- Topic:
- Terrorism, Insurgency, Counter-terrorism, Violence, Shia, and Jihad
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Libya, Spain, North Africa, Bahrain, Tunisia, and Barcelona
3. What’s Going on in Catalonia?
- Author:
- Astrid Barrio and Bonnie N. Field
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- On 1 October 2017, Catalonia held a referendum on independence from Spain. Catalonia, in the northeastern corner of Spain, has a population of seven and a half million. With Barcelona as its capital, it is a cultural and economic hub. Previously, in early September, the Catalan parliament had approved the self-determination referendum law to regulate the vote. At the behest of the Spanish government, which considered the law unconstitutional, Spain’s constitutional court suspended it and the referendum. But the Catalan government moved ahead anyway. In turn, the Spanish authorities took action to prevent the referendum, including arresting several Catalan government officials. The police action provoked widespread protests in Catalonia.
- Topic:
- Self Determination, Elections, Protests, and Separatism
- Political Geography:
- Spain, Catalonia, and Barcelona
4. Lingering Borders in the European Union: Migrant Workers in Spain and the Netherlands
- Author:
- Andra Bosneag
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- With the two European Union (EU) Enlargements of 2004 and 2007, an understanding of the antiquated and modern challenges, fears, and contradictions surrounding the inclusion of accession countries, as well as the respective rights of the “old” member states, has become essential to any contemporary analysis of current EU dynamics. This work incorporates my two semesters abroad in Barcelona, Spain, and Maastricht, the Netherlands, with the intended approach of further clarifying the Program's mission: “intensive interrogation and observation of globalization in comparative perspective.” Before embarking on my study abroad, I was profoundly marked by an incident that solidified my resolution to study Eastern and Central Europe. In an effort to skip the bureaucratic visa process, I attempted to use my Romanian passport instead of my American passport to enter Europe. After inquiring at five different Spanish embassies as to whether my Romanian passport, after EU accession, would eliminate the need for a visa, I left the country still not knowing if my passport was yet functional in the realm of the European Union. Upon entering Spain, a border patrol officer enthusiastically informed me that the EU required no entry papers (besides a passport) for its citizens studying abroad; my Romanian passport had ceased to be just a sentimental souvenir. This incident was one of many that attested to the lack of general knowledge surrounding the new EU members and it contributed to my decision to study the interactions between the old and new member states. Furthermore, both Spain and the Netherlands have generally been viewed as “different.” While Franco's authoritarian regime emphasized the popular slogan, “España es diferente,” it is currently employed as a tactic to garner tourists. In contrast, the political and cultural dynamics of the Netherlands have traditionally been perceived as anomalous in their liberalism, compelling many to label the country as “different.”
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Spain, Netherlands, and Barcelona
5. Making sense of Sarkozy's Union for the Mediterranean
- Author:
- Michael Emerson
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- resident Sarkozy's proposed Union for the Mediterranean (or UMed) has so far been poorly conceived and, to say the least, awkwardly presented politically. However this does not mean that nothing good can come of it. The Barcelona process and its confusing combination with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have neither been a disaster nor a brilliant success. There is a case for streamlining a single European Mediterranean policy, rationalising and properly integrating Barcelona, the ENP and new ideas that the UMed initiative may produce. Both Italy and Spain as well as the South Mediterranean states themselves appear concerned not to undermine the existing structures (Barcelona and ENP). Steps could be made to lighten the overweight participation of the EU and all its 27 member states in too many meetings with too many participants and too few results, drawing on models that have emerged in the EU's Northern maritime regions. However, the EU as a whole will not agree to delegate the essential initiative on strategic matters to just its Southern coastal states – as has been made clear in recent exchanges between President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel. In addition the EU will also want to maintain a balance between its Northern and Southern priorities, and if the UMed becomes a new impetus for the South, an equivalent but different policy move can be contemplated for the EU's East European neighbours
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, Foreign Policy, International Political Economy, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Spain, Italy, and Barcelona
6. Practices and their Failures: Arab-Israeli Relations and the Barcelona Process
- Author:
- Joel Peters
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- Joel Peters focuses on the failed peace-making practices of the Middle East multilateral track process launched at Madrid in 1991. He thus uses the dynamics within Arab-Israeli relations to inform an assessment of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Peters shows that conflicts of interests and rivalries among the participating parties emerged as soon as the multilateral peace talks moved from the discussion of ideas to the stage where decisions on the actual implementation of cooperation projects had to be reached. Thus, the demise of the multilateral talks and the subsequent slowdown in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process were underway before the launching of the EMP. The failure of developing peace-making practices within the multilateral Arab-Israeli peace talks inevitably spilled over to the EMP from the outset.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Arabia, and Barcelona
7. Conflict Prevention
- Author:
- Roberto Aliboni
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The Barcelona Declaration has to be considered as an international peacebuilding regime. International peacebuilding regimes, according to the definition of the International Crisis Group-ICG, are “international laws, norms, agreements and arrangements - global, regional or bilateral in scope - designed to minimise threats to security, promote confidence and trust, and create frameworks for dialogue and co-operation”. They are geared to prevent conflict and to post-conflict management (including preventing conflicts from re-escalating).
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Human Welfare, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Barcelona
8. Ten Points on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
- Author:
- Álvaro de Vasconcelos
- Publication Date:
- 03-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The Barcelona Process is by far the most relevant of the various existing Euro-Mediterranean initiatives, not only because it has a multilateral character but also because it is intended to be a multilayered process, comprising political and security as well as economic and social or human dimensions.
- Topic:
- Security, Human Rights, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and Barcelona
9. Europe and the Mediterranean: The Barcelona Process Five Years On
- Author:
- George Joffé
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- In November 1995, the European Union signed a wide-ranging declaration with the twelve littoral states of the South Mediterranean at the end of a major conference in Barcelona. The declaration outlined an agreed policy for future relations between the EU and its Mediterranean partners which sought to create a zone of shared stability, prosperity and peace. This policy is designed to condition relations throughout the Mediterranean on a new basis of partial economic integration and cooperation over mutual security issues, together with support for regional political, cultural and social development. It has extremely ambitious objectives and represents a new departure for the European Union, although the means proposed to achieve it have been modest. Now, almost five years after its inception, it is appropriate to consider to what degree it has begun to realize the objectives it set for itself, given the fact that they should be achieved by the year 2010.
- Topic:
- Security and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, North Africa, and Barcelona