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BACK TO FOUR FLAGS … AND MORE?

The Kurds: POST-DAESH and beyond   Not long ago, developments in the Middle East seemed to bring closer to reality the idea of a Kurdish state entity, with Kurdish influence increasing due to their military successes against Daesh and in the context of the prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Syria. …

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THE GAZA STRIP: FROM “SINGAPORE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN” TO A PALESTINIAN STATE?

The recent developments that brought to the attention the Palestinian question[1] also made the analysts consider the geopolitical shifts and the new issues confronting the Gaza Strip, the small parcel of land near the Mediterranean that has increasing chances of becoming, if not the “Singapore of the Mediterranean”[2], the core …

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THE WEST BANK: STATEHOOD OR STATU QUO?

Several events that took place at the end of 2017 and the beginning of this year brought to the attention the complex situation in the West Bank and the still not solved Palestinian problem. Some of these developments indicate a significant shift in the approach of the issue by the …

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ZIMBABWE: LA FIN PAS GLORIEUSE D’UN CHEF CENTENAIRE

Les événements récents ont apporté à l’attention des analystes le Zimbabwe, pays africain soumis au régime dictatorial de Robert Mugabe, 93 ans, qui vient d’être déposé et poussé vers la retraite, mardi 21 novembre, après une vie de lutte et trente-sept ans de pouvoir. * La Rhodésie du Sud (entre 1890-1980), …

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THE BALKAN ROUTE: FROM WARLORDS TO MIGRANTS AND JIHADISTS

Several developments and incidents are bringing again to the analysts’ attention the area in the Balkan Peninsula traditionally known as “the Balkan Route”. In this geopolitical region of Southeast Europe, an area of 550,000 km², about 55 million people live together, with different identities, and sometimes in adversarial ethnic, cultural …

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CYBER VULNERABILITIES: THREATS FROM THE FUTURE’S PIRATES

In recent years, cyber-attacks have become a significant challenge to the security of the modern state and society. With the rising frequency of malicious actions in cyberspace, followed by billion-dollar losses and damages to the credibility of the targeted entities, governments began to establish strategies, policies, agencies and procedures to …

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THE KURDS: ONE PEOPLE, FOUR FLAGS

REGIONAL AND GEOPOLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A KURDISH STATE   Professor Marvin Mikesell of the University of Chicago described Kurdistan as “a cultural-geographic reality that happens coincidentally to be a political-geographic impossibility.” His words are particularly accurate when considering the “greater” Kurdistan, the lands inhabited by a Kurdish-majority population across south-eastern …

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THE HORN OF AFRICA: INCREASING INTEREST OF SIGNIFICANT GEOPOLITICAL ACTORS

Several recent developments but mostly the increasing military presence of some powerful international actors are attracting the analysts’ attention towards the Horn of Africa, one of the most complex and conflicted regions of the world. For the last 150 years, the Horn has been a theater for strategic power struggles: …

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THE MOJAHEDINE E-KHALQ (MKO) (CASE STUDY)

Several events in the last few months, especially in the context of the process of re-examining some major topics of Washington’s foreign policy – including the relationship with Iran – brought to the attention the Mojahedine e-Khalq (MKO)[1], a controversial anti-Tehran regime group with a complex history dating from the …

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