ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Fighting between security forces and armed groups in Kerdassah district leaves one policeman dead, state TV reports. Egyptian troops and police have stormed the Kerdassah district in the outskirts of Cairo to clear it of "terrorist elements", security officials said, amid clashes with armed groups based in the area. Vehicles carrying armed personnel were sent into the village on Thursday while army helicopters hovered above. The clashes have so far left one policeman dead, state TV reported. It said police forces took control of the area and imposed a curfew. Security troops launched an operation in the area to arrest people accused of torching police stations and killing about 11 security officers in clashes that erupted following the army's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi last July. Police forces were not allowed in Kerdasah since then. Al Jazeera's correspondent, reporting from Cairo, said the operation began at about 3:00a.m. and was still ongoing. "Securit...

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that Russia would rebuild a naval base in the Arctic and restart naval patrols in the region. Russia's interest in the Arctic has both an economic and security dimension, one which will only grow as the region will become more accessible in the coming decades. However, following through with such plans will be both technologically difficult and expensive, so for now such naval plans can be seen mostly as military posturing on the part of Moscow. Putin's statements came a few days after a convoy of 10 Russian warships successfully completed a journey from Severomorsk, near Finland, to Kotelny Island in the Novosibirsk Archipelago, a distance of over 2,000 nautical miles. This journey went through the Northern Sea Route along Russia's Arctic coastline, an important transit corridor increasingly used for commercial shipping. While just five years ago there were no ships that transited through this corridor, 495 ships have re...

Islamabad/Brussels   |   18 Sep 2013 To consolidate democracy, Pakistan’s new parliament needs institutional reform and strong cross-party determination to fend off an interventionist military and over-reaching judiciary. In its latest report, Parliament’s Role in Pakistan’s Democratic Transition , the International Crisis Group examines the challenges facing a legislature still striving for full democratic sovereignty. In the midst of a security crisis, lingering extremism and a weakening economy, its authority is tested from many directions. Yet, the opportunities to consolidate democracy are real and legislative tools to address institutional challenges are more sophisticated than ever. The report’s major findings and recommendations are: The experience of the thirteenth National Assembly (2008-2013) demonstrated that threats to democracy from an interventionist military, ambitious judiciary and unreformed bureaucracy continue. The second ph...

Pou r recadrer vite fait : Nous sommes le fin juin 1940. Face aux hordes nazies, la France est « à genou » elle à demandé l’armistice ! Les alliés Anglais nourrissent les plus grand es craintes face à la formidable force navale Française (la Royale) qui pourrait passer du côté obscure, du côté fasciste ! Hitler ayant la main basse sur n otre terre, Winston Churchill ordonne aux Français de neutraliser leurs navires de guerre, « La Royale » Française compte encore beaucoup de navires puissants hors de ses propres ports! Mer El Kébir est une ville d’Algérie, proche d’Oran et port militarisé par la France. Là nous avions les croiseurs de bataille : Dunkerque et Strasbourg (des monstres! ) , des cuirassés Le Bretagne et Le Provence, un porte hydravions, 6 contre-torpilleurs … juillet 1940, vers 7 h 00 du matin une escadre anglaise se présente devant Mers El-Kébir, les marins Français les connaissent très bien, ils ont fait ensemble de nombreux exercices. Les m...

By George Friedman Editor's Note: For more information on purchasing the full PC16 report, which assesses each member of the grouping, and for details on custom briefings and analysis for your organization, please click here . China has become a metaphor. It represents a certain phase of economic development, which is driven by low wages, foreign appetite for investment and a chaotic and disorderly development, magnificent in scale but deeply flawed in many ways. Its magnificence spawned the flaws, and the flaws helped create the magnificence. The arcs along which nations rise and fall vary in length and slope. China's has been long, as far as these things go, lasting for more than 30 years. The country will continue to exist and perhaps prosper, but this era of Chinese development -- pyramiding on low wages to conquer global markets -- is ending simply because there are now other nations with even lower wages and other advantages. China will have to behave differently fr...

Summary While plans for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles take shape, the magnitude of the operation should not be overlooked. The effort will take years, will not wholly eliminate the threat of chemical weapons' use in the near term and will be fraught with risk. Analysis The United States and Russia have given the Syrian regime until Sept. 21 to produce a complete list of its chemical agents and munitions types as well as the locations of storage, production and research and development facilities. In the existing plan, international inspectors will enter Syria by November for an initial assessment and to destroy all mixing and filling equipment for chemical weapons. Every component of the chemical weapons program is supposed to be destroyed or out of the country by mid-2014. Destruction Process Following the standard for chemical weapons disposal, the weapons must be incinerated in order to ensure their complete destruction in a safe and efficien...

Summary Editor's Note: This is the second installment of a two-part series on the evolution of the U.S. and Russian space industries. Click here for Part 1. International Launch Services, a U.S.-Russian joint venture, is expected to launch a Russian Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in late September or early October, making it the first Proton-M rocket to be launched since one exploded shortly after liftoff in July. The rocket had been scheduled for a launch in mid-September was postponed due to a technical issue. While a successful launch would not remove all concerns surrounding the reliability of the Proton-M and other Russian rockets, another failure could be disastrous. Over the past few years, Russia's space industry has been plagued by launch failures and other problems due to an overreliance on outdated Soviet technology and quality control shortfalls. Despite this, Russia has emerged as the world's leader in commercial payload lau...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels remain furious over a Russian-brokered deal on Syria’s chemical weapons that has averted U.S. strikes on Damascus, saying the gives President Bashar al-Assad a green light to redouble his bombardments of opposition fighters and civilians. During the weekend, Assad’s jets and artillery resumed heavy shelling of rebel-held areas outside Damascus. The shelling had been halted when it appeared a U.S. strike was likely. Rebels aligned with the major Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, say the deal does nothing to halt the indiscriminate air attacks and shelling that have left thousands dead. Rebels say they doubt the Syria government will abide by the deal. Opposition activists and civilians in rebel-held strongholds are making home-made gas masks from bottles, surgical cotton and coal dust and are trying to secure supplies of  drugs that can be used as antidotes to nerve agents. Rebel merger Partly in response to disappointment ...