ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Two consecutive bomb blasts in Hyderi, North Naimabad in Pakistan’s commercial city of Karachi on November 8, 2012 are yet another reminder of deep roots of sectarian divide. A country created 65 years ago for the Muslims of undivided India, has seen more killings of Muslims by their co-religionists than in any other country of the Muslim world. These attacks were made specifically in Dawoodi Bohra locality. These are not the first attacks on this Shia faction. Earlier also, besides Shias of Punjab, the Bohra religious community has also been targeted. With the nearby Dolmen Mall shut for the day, shopkeepers on the Syedna Burhanuddin Road in Karachi, where the explosives went off, also pulled down their shutters. Twin blasts left eight people dead and several more injured some gravely. Many of the men present there, believed that the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was behind the attack. It is a group of extreme Sunni Hanafi fanatics with avowed agenda of destroying the Sh...

  Syrian shells hit Israel army position, Israeli community on Syrian border IDF fires warning shots in response Syrian civil war continues to move closer to Israel Jerusalem, Nov 11 – Mortar bombs fired from Syria hit an Israeli community and an Israeli army position Sunday, prompting the Israel artillery to fire a warning shot at a Syrian army position. “A short while ago, a mortar shell hit an IDF post in the Golan Heights adjacent to the Israel-Syria border, as part of the internal conflict inside Syria. No damage or injuries have been reported,” an IDF statement said. “In response, IDF soldiers fired warning shots towards Syrian areas. The IDF has filed a complaint through the U.N. forces operating in the area, stating that fire emanating from Syria into Israel will not be tolerated and shall be responded to with severity.” Earlier Sunday, a mortar bomb exploded in the Israeli community of Alonei Habashan as a result of fighting between the Syrian arm...

Photo © International Spy Museum Washington, DC is the home to the only spy museum in the United States. The International Spy Museum showcases more than 200 gadgets, weapons, bugs, cameras, vehicles, and technologies used for espionage throughout the world. Learn about microdots and invisible ink, buttonhole cameras and submarine recording systems, bugs of all sizes and kinds. Find out why and how these artifacts were developed. Uncover stories of individual spies from Moses to Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth I to George Washington, Cardinal Richelieu to Joseph Stalin. The International Spy Museum offers lectures, films, book-signings, and family activities covering a wide range of spy-related topics. There is a museum store offering unique gifts and a restaurant next door, the Spy City Cafe. See Photos of the International Spy Museum Exhibits and Interactive Tours Permanent Collection - The permanent exhibition presents the tradecraft of espionage through the stories of in...

I want to share this article with you because I consider it´s  a very interesting perspective. It has links to the other parts.     By:  Dan Harris, China Law Blog This is part four of our three part series on how to negotiate with Chinese companies.  Yes, you read it right. Part four of three. How To Handle Chinese Negotiating Tactics, part one is here , part two is here , and part three is here . We originally planned a three part series, but when a reader alerted me to a post by Andrew Hupert on how American negotiators are viewed by their Chinese counterparts, I could not resist piling on a part four.  So here goes. In Hupert’s post, entitled  American Negotiating Culture – Through the Eyes of the Chinese Counterparty , Hupert writes on how Chinese companies see their American negotiating counterparts. Hupert has taught Chinese negotiating tactics at NYU’s Business School, conducted extensive research on the subject, and...

Summary GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Image Egyptian Ambassador to Israel Atef Salem (L) meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Oct. 17 Israeli military action will have significant consequences for Egypt. Cairo traditionally has been the primary regional power, and its peace treaty with Israel has been central to Israel's national defense strategy. However, the Arab Spring and subsequent rise to power of the Islamists in Cairo has upended Egypt's internal political calculation. Conflict in Gaza puts the Muslim Brotherhood in a very awkward position. What happens next depends upon how Israel decides to proceed in Gaza. Analysis Egypt announced Nov. 14 that it was recalling its ambassador to Israel. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood called on the government to reassess the country's relationship with Israel after a series of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip that included the assassination of a senior Hamas military leader . The Muslim Brotherhood...

On Oct. 19, Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan was assassinated on a narrow side street near Sassine Square in downtown Beirut. The attack involved the detonation of a moderately sized vehicle-borne improvised explosive device as al-Hassan's car passed by the vehicle in which the device was hidden. The explosion killed not only al-Hassan and his driver but also six other people and wounded about 90 more. Al-Hassan, the intelligence chief for Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, had been a marked man for some time prior to his death. He was the security chief for former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated in February 2005 in an attack that most believe was conducted by the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon. But more recently, as Stratfor noted in February 2012 , al-Hassan played a critical role channeling support from the Gulf states and the West to the Syrian rebels through Lebanon. This involved smuggling arms from Lebanon to Syria destined...