Bruce Newsome. ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham; more transliterately known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL; most derogatively known by its Arabic acronym “Da’ish”) is an effective state and must be defeated as a state, before its other risks (civil war, terrorism, insurgency, genocide) can be contained. Although many officials are unwilling to admit ISIS’ self-declared transition to an “Islamic State,” we should – for strategic purposes – admit its effective statehood, even though we should continue to deny its legitimacy. In fact, we should realize the advantages of fighting a state,…
Author: CASADE
Holly Ellyatt. A cyberterror attack on vital national infrastructure such as power facilities, transport networks and the financial sector could be imminent—and international governments are ill-prepared, cybersecurity experts have warned. “It’s not easy to predict what will happen, but the worst terrorist attacks are not expected,” Eugene Kaspersky, the co-founder and chief executive of global IT security firm Kaspersky Labs, told CNBC. “So I am afraid that if we face this cyberterrorism, it will be very unpredictable in a very unpredictable place, but with very visible damage. Unfortunately, there are many possible victims.” In recent months, the business world and…
Sean S. Costigan. Reviewed by Andrew Whiting. This book consists of a series of chapters covering a multitude of different topics under the title Cyberspaces and Global Affairs. Split into three parts, the book examines: cyberspace and security; the challenges ICT poses for politics, society and the individual; and finally, the difficulties surrounding both the ‘information overload’ (p. 319) and the ‘digital divide’ (p. 239). The scope of each contribution varies greatly, with some concentrating on broad international topics such as cyber-war, and others focusing on how ICT has impacted on particular case studies including, but not limited to, corporations…
David Gold and Sean S. Costigan. Reviewed by James Boswell. Today, no single issue dominates the global political landscape as much as terrorism. Aware of their unique position in the newly unipolar world, terrorist leaders have articulated that economic warfare is a key component of the new terrorist agenda. Governments have accentuated the role of economic tools in their counter-terrorism policies while maintaining emphasis on the application of military force, or ‘hard power’, even though such tools often prove unnecessarily blunt or even sorely inadequate. Given the complexity of the global threat posed by modern transnational terrorist groups, combating terrorism…
The economics of exchange rates. Countries have multiple choices when it comes to exchange rate policy. At one end are the floating exchange rate regimes where the price of the local currency is determined only by market forces. If travelers, importers, exporters, and international investors demand more (or less) of a certain currency, its price goes up (down). At the other end are the fixed exchange rate regimes where the government does not allow the value of the currency to change. If the demand for the local currency increases, then the government starts selling local money to stop the appreciation.…
Anna Holligan. Inside the courtroom, Laurent Gbagbo seemed unsteady, leaning on his desk as he pleaded not guilty. His co-accused, Charles Ble Goude, gave a more defiant response, telling the judges: “I do not recognise the charges.” Prosecutors said Mr Ble Goude had acted as a spin doctor. He called himself the “street general”. Archive footage played in court showed him comparing himself to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s media adviser Alastair Campbell. Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda used her opening statement to focus on the victims. She spoke of one woman who was arrested during a peaceful march in…
Tonny Onyulo. Three years ago In Nairobi, Kenya, Solomon Osman woke up in a dimly lit room in Garissa, Kenya, after armed men grabbed him and stuffed him into a truck as he was selling clothes on the street in Mombasa 280 miles away. He said al-Shabab, the Somalia-based radical Islamic terrorist group that killed 148 students and others at Garissa University College in April, had kidnapped him and 20 other youths. “We lost our senses, only to wake up in a mosque in an unknown place,” he said. “We were all forced to convert to Islam, given new Muslim names…
The Norwegian government launched a new white paper on global security challenges in Norway’s foreign policy, which includes efforts to strengthen information and analysis capacity against the rapidly rising threat of organised crime in supporting terrorism, cyber crime and even state conflicts, working across fields of Defence, Police, Justice and development at a new scale. This is intended to ensure a more effective and more coherent effort to address global security challenges. At a joint launch event today with INTERPOL Secretary-General and Global Initiative founding member Jurgen Stock, Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende has announced that against this strategic framework, Norway will allocate NOK…
By Robert Rotberg. Reviewed by Thomas Sanders. Although Afghanistan and Iraq are at the epicenter of America’s war on terror, terrorist groups threaten other parts of the world as well. One of the most dangerous is the greater Horn of Africa region—Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and the Sudan, along with Yemen, their volatile neighbor. Al Qaeda has already struck in the region, and the area’s complex history, shared poverty, poor governance, underdevelopment, and renowned resistance against Western colonizers have created an intricate web of opportunity for potential terrorists. In this timely book, Robert Rotberg and his coauthors provide authoritative…
Richard Guest. It was a tough Christmas for traders in Nigeria and their international counterparts, as the ongoing dollar crunch limited the ability of many to pay suppliers. Since June, the Central Bank of Nigeria has limited the availability of hard currency to importers and placed restrictions on interbank dealing as it tries to mitigate an oil price crash that has gutted the government’s revenues. There could be more hard times to come. Analysts predict that the naira will inevitably be revalued this year, causing further pain in a country that is heavily dependent on imports. The currency is trading…