ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Patrick Cockburn " The Independent " -In the space of a year he has become the most powerful jihadi leader in the world, and on Monday night his forces captured Mosul, the northern capital of Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also known as Abu Dua, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has suddenly emerged as a figure who is shaping the future of Iraq, Syria and the wider Middle East. He began to appear from the shadows in the summer of 2010 when he became leader of al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) after its former leaders were killed in an attack by US and Iraqi troops. AQI was at a low point in its fortunes, as the Sunni rebellion, in which it had once played a leading role, was collapsing. It was revived by the revolt of the Sunni in Syria in 2011 and, over the next three years by a series of carefully planned campaigns in both Iraq and Syria. How far al-Baghdadi is directly responsible for the military strategy and tactics of ISIS, once called AQI, is uncertai...

Jacqueline Côté China accounts for over 90% of the global output of rare earth metals, a key component in smart phones, computer hard drives, and catalytic converters in cars. In 2010, China announced it would impose an export quota on the valuable metals, sending several developed economies – notably Japan, which relies heavily on the production of electronics – into a bit of a panic. China is not the only country sitting on large rare earth deposits. The metals are not so ‘rare’ as their name implies, and can be found in inner Asia, Australia, parts of Namibia, and the United States. However, the refining process is both costly and environmentally damaging to an extent that most countries are unwilling to mass produce at levels required to meet global supply.

Patrick Johnson The steady retreat of Arctic ice over the past decade is no less than a geopolitical upheaval in the making. Never before did the intricacies of the border separating the eight Arctic states really matter, because the estimated 90 billion barrels of oil at stake were rendered irretrievable by thick, glacial ice. Rising global temperatures have changed all that, and a traversable Arctic has already departed the realm of theoretical possibility to become undisputed fact. This has important geopolitical consequences for littoral states and beyond, not just in terms of unlocking the resource potential in the Arctic seabed, but also for the new avenues of international trade via the Northwest Passage.

WASHINGTON — The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency , Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn of the Army, and his civilian deputy, David R. Shedd, will retire by early fall, the agency said in an email to its employees on Wednesday. The two men are stepping down at a time when the Defense Intelligence Agency is shifting its priorities from providing intelligence to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to working more closely with the C.I.A. to gather and distribute information on global issues like the proliferation of weapons and rising powers like China. In a statement, the Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “appreciates the service of these two dedicated and professional leaders,” and that the retirements had been planned “for some time.” But two senior American officials said tensions had flared between General Flynn and some of his Pentagon colleagues who balked at changes he wanted to make, including cuts to what he viewed as outdated intell...

By Michael Snyder - The Russians are actually making a move against the petrodollar. It appears that they are quite serious about their de-dollarization strategy. The largest natural gas producer on the planet, Gazprom, has signed agreements with some of their biggest customers to switch payments for natural gas from U.S. dollars to euros. And Gazprom would have never done this without the full approval of the Russian government, because the Russian government holds a majority stake in Gazprom. There hasn't been a word about this from the big mainstream news networks in the United States, but this is huge. When you are talking about Gazprom, you are talking about a company that is absolutely massive. It is one of the largest companies in the entire world and it makes up 8 percent of Russian GDP all by itself. It holds 18 percent of the natural gas reserves of the entire planet, and it is also a very large oil producer. So for Gazprom to make a move like this is extremely signific...

By Chris Floyd - The moral insanity of the Terror War continues to spawn more violence, more extremism, more repression, more injustice, and the total subversion of the "Western values," all of which it is ostensibly designed to defend. A new piece by Patrick Cockburn in the Independent provides a grimly illuminating look at this insanity in action on a specific front: Syria. It's worth reading in full, but here is an excerpt: The Syrian war has turned into a Syrian version of the Thirty Years War in Germany four centuries ago. Too many conflicts and too many players have become involved for any peace terms to be acceptable to all.. … It has become increasingly obvious over the past year that al-Qa’ida type movements, notably Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, have come to dominate or can operate freely in a great swathe of territory across northern Iraq and northern Syria. This gives Isis a vast hinterland in which it can manoeuvre and fight on both sides of what...

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (L) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at a press conference in Brussels on May 27.(GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images) Summary The battle for political control of the European Union has begun. With the elections for the European Parliament over, member states are now negotiating the appointment of officials at some of the Continent's most important institutions, including the European Commission and the European Council. Because the largest economies in the bloc dominate these negotiations, the debate risks deepening the political fragmentation between countries in Western Europe and countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The EU members in Central and Eastern Europe cannot afford to leave the bloc because they depend on the European Union for funding and subsidies. However, these countries are likely to start ignoring and selectively challenging decisions made in Brussels. Analysis The slogan that the European Union cho...

A Chinese Coast Guard ship pursues a Vietnamese vessel June 1 near the site of a Chinese oil rig.(STR/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Vietnam is struggling with how to respond to China's maritime expansion and the resulting tensions in the South China Sea. Some of Vietnam's strategies have included counterbalancing China by cultivating relationships with regional and outside powers and trying to reduce China's economic leverage against Vietnam. Until recently, the Vietnamese leadership's tendency to prioritize a cordial relationship with China often offset such strategies -- any major rupture with Beijing could expose uncomfortable internal divisions within Vietnam's ruling Communist Party. Eventually, however, Hanoi will have to reorient its diplomatic, economic and political priorities to deal with China's rise -- a process that could reshape Vietnam's internal politics. Analysis Bilateral tensions between China and Vietnam have become more pronounced since Bei...