Al-Qaeda may not have regained the global threat potential that it posed a decade or so ago – at least, not yet. But its local and regional efforts have made it, in many cases, a powerful and entrenched source of instability. If left unchecked, such local and regional power can grow into something altogether more terrible.
Middle East and North Africa
Iran’s nuclear weapons deal will rebalance the Middle East
Signed by the P5 + Germany and mediated by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton, the deal achieved with Iran on the latter’s nuclear programme has important implications for regional and international security dynamics that go well beyond nuclear weapons.
Recovery from the Arab Spring will take a generation or more
Predictions that may take a generation or more for the Middle East to recover from the turmoil that the Arab Spring are clearly a sobering assessment. But they are hardly surprising given that there has been no significant improvement in people’s living conditions, that political tensions and repression persist and that levels of violence are on the up.
Three questions on Libya and one on the region
Resistance by the old regime collapsed relatively quickly on the road to, and in, Tripoli and the rebels clearly have the upper hand now and momentum is on their side, but there is a danger of setbacks.
Libya: Planning for the Day after
The balance sheet of internationalised peace and state building is less than stellar, but it offers important lessons for the conflict in Libya.
Libya: 100 Days On
One-hundred days on from the beginning of NATO’s “Operation Unified Protector”, the question remains whether an eventual solution to the on-going crisis in Libya will be worse than the problem it was meant to deal with.
The EU’s New European Neighbourhood Policy
Is the EU’s New European Neighbourhood Policy fit to address security challenges in the Southern Neighbourhood?
Three reasons why we should not arm the Libyan rebels
Thus far, the enforcement of the no-fly zone has served its purpose and stopped Gaddafi’s forces from further advances. Perhaps it is time to scale back military talk and give diplomacy another chance, including by working closely with, rather than arming, the rebels.
Libya: A solution worse than the problem?
Related NotesAs the crisis in Libya unfolds and as the US, France and the UK get potentially sucked ever deeper into yet another disastrous military intervention, policy debates and decisions appear to be driven primarily by humanitarian concern. Unsurprisingly,...