ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Analysis EUROPE Oct. 21: The European Parliament holds its plenary session in Strasbourg until Oct. 24. Oct. 21: EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg. Oct. 22: The European Commission will present its priorities for 2014 when Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso presents the Work Program for 2014 to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Oct. 23: In Hungary, the Civil Union Forum is expected to hold a pro-government demonstration. Oct. 24-25: EU leaders will meet in Brussels to discuss different aspects of the European crisis, among other things. Oct. 24: Greenland's parliament is expected to vote on whether radioactive material can be extracted on the island. Oct. 25: The Czech Republic will hold parliamentary elections. FORMER SOVIET UNION Oct. 21: The 14th India-Russia annual summit will be held in Moscow. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will arrive in the Russian capital to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on bilateral, regional and internationa

By AFP October 21, 2013 - " AFP "- Paris (AFP) - France and Mexico have angrily demanded prompt explanations from Washington following fresh, "shocking" spying allegations leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden. The reports in French daily Le Monde and German weekly Der Spiegel revealed that the National Security Agency secretly recorded tens of millions of phone calls in France and hacked into former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's email account. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls described the revelations in Le Monde newspaper as "shocking", in an interview Monday with Europe 1 radio. The spy agency taped 70.3 million phone calls in France over a 30-day period between December 10 and January 8 this year, Le Monde reported in its online version, citing documents from Snowden. According to the paper, the NSA automatically picked up communications from certain phone numbers in France and recorded text messages under a programme co

Increased U.S. spending, especially at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, reflects Africa's growing importance to counter-terrorism efforts. By Shashank Bengali October 21, 2013 - " LA Times "- WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has begun a burst of spending in Africa, expanding its main base on the continent and investing in air facilities, flight services, telecommunications and electrical upgrades as the U.S. military deepens its footprint in a region with a rising threat of Islamist terrorism. Hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditures, detailed in unclassified federal documents, demonstrate Africa's increasing importance to U.S. military and counter-terrorism operations as the war in Iraq has ended and American troops withdraw from Afghanistan. By far the most significant expansion is occurring at Camp Lemonnier in the deeply impoverished nation of Djibouti, a sleepy backwater on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, just north of Somalia. The sprawling base, built out of a o

More than five years after Brazil discovered massive oil reserves thousands of meters underneath the sea floor, the country's prospects of imminently becoming an economic and energy power are fading. On Monday, Brazil hosted its first auction of one of these fields, now known as pre-salt fields, but the event was met with skepticism and unrest. The inauspicious beginning shows how Brazil's geopolitical constraints have tempered once-promising expectations and how the country will have to focus on its domestic affairs. Back in 2007, Brazil was in a state of euphoria. A consortium led by state-controlled Petrobras discovered the Tupi field in the pre-salt layer, a geological formation off the continental shelf of Brazil's coast that holds significant hydrocarbon resources. The Brazilian economy was growing by more than 6 percent per year, and there was a widespread feeling that Brazil would become a global energy and economic power. The country's largest companies were ra

Protesters upset with the prospect of Telanganan statehood, including local utility employees, have forced periodic outages for power and other services to some parts of Andhra Pradesh for more than a week, much to the detriment of the city of Hyderabad, one of India's most vibrant local economies and a center of the country's information technology sector. India's ruling Congress Party supported Telangana's bid for statehood July 30 despite the controversy surrounding the issue. The government hoped the backing would earn it some votes in the May 2014 elections and that it would dispel long-held notions that it was feckless and corrupt. According to the government's decision, Hyderabad will serve as a joint capital for 10 years before transitioning to a union territory. The city will lie outside a future Telanganan state and the future Seemandhra state, which will be composed of the remnant Rayalaseema and Andhra districts of Andhra Pradesh. In theory, the

Summary The divergence in U.S. and Saudi interests that began with the events of 9/11 has reached a critical stage with the launching of the U.S.-Iranian diplomatic engagement. Saudi Arabia cannot accept a new regional landscape in which its archenemy, Iran, has more room to project power, so Riyadh is undergoing a doctrinal shift in its foreign policy behavior. As the world's largest exporter of crude oil, Saudi Arabia has always been a major global player, but it is only now assuming a foreign policy posture independent of Washington. Still, there are limits to how far the Saudis can go. Analysis On Oct. 18, Saudi Arabia announced that it was rejecting its invitation for the two-year, non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council it had been elected to a day earlier. In a statement, the kingdom's Foreign Ministry said it could not fulfill its obligations as a member because the global security body is beset with double standards. The Saudis accused the U.N. Security Council

Algeria’s ‘timid’ historians shy away from revealing the ugly truths about war By Robert Fisk October 20, 2013 - Major General Jamaa Jamaa was not a popular man in Beirut. One of Syria’s most senior intelligence officers in Lebanon until the withdrawal of Bashar al-Assad’s troops in 2005, he was headquartered in the run-down Beau Rivage Hotel in west Beirut and also in the Bekaa town of Anjaar, where Lebanese men would be taken for interrogation and later emerge – or not emerge at all – sans teeth or nails. He was a loyal, ruthless apparatchik for Bashar’s father Hafez, and his mysterious killing last week in the Syrian war provoked no tears in Beirut. The UN had interviewed Jamaa about the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri whose 2005 assassination brought about the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. But how did Jamaa die? Syrian state television would say only that he was “martyred while carrying out his national duties to defend Syria and its people and pursuing ter

Analysis Despite significant differences that have emerged recently between the United States and its Gulf Cooperation Council allies over Middle East policy, significant military and overall defense cooperation continues. The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Oct. 15 that it had notified Congress of a possible military equipment deal with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Under the agreement, various munitions and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support would be provided to Riyadh for an estimated $6.8 billion and to Abu Dhabi for $4 billion. The sale, consisting of state-of-the-art weaponry and equipment in the U.S. arsenal, further deepens the already strong military and industrial relationship between the United States and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Recent events in the Middle East have diminished the overall political relationship between the two sides. U.S. attempts at a negotiated solution with Iran as well as t