ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Dave Lindorff January 19, 2014 - Climate skeptics in Congress, and oil and coal industry lobbyists like the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Coal Council (ACC) may be preventing any significant action in the US on reducing this country’s emissions of carbon into the atmosphere, but at the Pentagon, and in the executive suites of the oil industry giants, there is no doubt about the reality of climate change. As Admiral Robert J. Papp of the US Coast Guard wrote in 2012 in the magazine of the US Naval Institute: “The world may seem to be growing smaller, but its seas are growing bigger—particularly in the great North, where a widening water-highway beckons both with resources and challenges.” Admiral Papp didn’t futz around. Without any caveats or bows to corrupted scientists on the payroll of the Koch Brothers, he wrote: “The Arctic Ocean, in the northern region of the Arctic Circle, is changing from a solid expanse of inaccessible ice fields into a growing nav...

A member of one of Mexico's self-defense groups stands guard at a barricade in Uspero, Michoacan State, on Jan. 16. (HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP/Getty Images) Summary The emergence of self-defense groups in Michoacan state in February 2013 has greatly complicated the nature of armed conflicts in the region, where violence had previously stemmed primarily from competition between rival criminal organizations. The self-defense militias have been expanding into a coordinated body and now operate in more than a dozen municipalities. Their primary goal is to combat the Knights Templar, the dominant criminal group in the state, while taking charge of public security in each town they enter, at times by disarming local police. The expansion of the militias, along with the increase in violence related to them and the Knights Templar, has triggered several recent deployments of federal troops to the economically important state, which is home of the strategic port city of Lazaro Cardenas and near ...

Men stare across the Jordan Valley on Jan. 8. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a brief and unannounced visit to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah on Jan. 16. The visit is not altogether unusual, despite some media reports to the contrary; Netanyahu also visited Abdullah in December 2012 and March 2013, each time without giving advance notice. After the prime minister arrived, Amman issued a statement saying the visit reflected the king's desire to make "tangible progress" on peace talks with the Palestinians and "protects the interests of the Jordanian kingdom." Netanyahu's spokesman gave a more vague description, saying the visit was to discuss "economic cooperation between the two countries and other regional matters." There is little reason to expect much headway in negotiations over the peace process. However, there are less high-profile negotiations underway between Israel and Jordan ove...

A South Sudanese policeman in the southern state of Western Equatoria on Jan. 14. (PHIL MOORE/AFP/Getty Images) Summary In the absence of a cease-fire between the South Sudanese government and rebel representatives who are currently meeting in Addis Ababa, both sides continue to maneuver on the battlefield. In addition to tribal violence throughout the country, larger military confrontations are ongoing in Bor, Malakal and Bentiu. However, there is no direct threat to the oil-producing region of Upper Nile state or to the capital, Juba. Should a cease-fire be achieved, it would still not make negotiations over the conflict's underlying causes much easier. Analysis Since Jan. 14 there has been heavy fighting, including tank battles, in the streets of Malakal, the regional capital of Upper Nile state. Upper Nile is South Sudan's primary oil-producing region, but the unrest has not directly threatened oil production. Meanwhile, a stalemate has emerged in the fighting along the r...

THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, shown Jan. 12, said he is “satisfied that we will achieve victory against al-Qaeda.” By Loveday Morris and Ernesto Londoño, Published: January 16 | Updated: Friday, January 17, 1:05 AM BAGHDAD — Iraq has asked the United States for new arms to beat back the dramatic resurgence of al-Qaeda-linked militants in a western province and would like U.S. troops to train its counter­terrorism forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in an interview Thursday. The Iraqi leader said he provided the wish list after a phone call with Vice President Biden on Tuesday. U.S. officials said it might be easy to deliver those weapons, which include assault rifles and artillery, to Baghdad soon. Some is on hand, and we can supply it quickly,” a senior American diplomat said Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid. The request for stepped-up U.S. assistance is adding urgency to a debate over the types of weapons that...

Mexican newspaper reveals secret arrangement between DEA and Sinaloa cartel By Per Liljas - " Time " - The U.S. government allowed the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to carry out its business unimpeded between 2000 and 2012 in exchange for information on rival cartels, an investigation by El Universal claims . Citing court documents, the Mexican newspaper reports that DEA officers met with top Sinaloa officials over fifty times and offered to have charges against cartel members dropped in the U.S., among other pledges. Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, a senior research scholar in law and economics at Columbia University, says that the tactic has been previously used in Colombia, Cambodia, Thailand and Afghanistan. “Of course, this modus operandi involves a violation of public international law, besides adding more fuel to the violence, violations of due process and of human rights,” he told El Universal. Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, said while that the problem of...

By Nick Turse January 16, 2014 - They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America. They snatch men from their homes in the Maghreb and shoot it out with heavily armed militants in the Horn of Africa. They feel the salty spray while skimming over the tops of waves from the turquoise Caribbean to the deep blue Pacific. They conduct missions in the oppressive heat of Middle Eastern deserts and the deep freeze of Scandinavia. All over the planet, the Obama administration is waging a secret war whose full extent has never been fully revealed -- until now. Since September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Operations forces have grown in every conceivable way, from their numbers to their budget. Most telling, however, has been the exponential rise in special ops deployments globally. This presence -- now, in nearly 70% of the world’s nations -- provides new evidence of the size and scope of a secret war being waged from Latin Americ...

The interior of an advanced microscope used to observe objects on a nanoscale. (Kristian Molhave/Wikimedia) Summary The potential of science to advance technology -- and therefore empower those who wield it -- has been a constant throughout history, much like the geographical constraints that shape the actions and attitudes of nations. Select technologies, such as the development of motorized transport, have changed the relationship between humans and their immediate surroundings . The field of nanotechnology is one such area that has the potential to dramatically alter the ways in which people and organizations interact with their environment. Advancements in basic science allow for a better understanding of key processes, providing a solid foundation on which to develop and build new technologies. For manufactured systems that exploit chemical reactions, like fuel cells, batteries or solar panels, this foundation starts with an understanding of the mechanism itself -- the chemical r...