ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Prominent Ukrainian MP denounces Obama's weakness, calls him a 'shot-down pilot' By Mikhail Klikushin There were times in Ukraine’s recent history when even the country’s military brass were kneeling before the U.S. Literally. In June 2013, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft received the saber of the Ukrainian Cossack in the city of Kherson from a kneeling Ukrainian high-rank military official. Mr. Tefft nowadays is serving the country as an Ambassador to Russia where no such honors are even imaginable. But that was then—a previous regime. On the surface, today’s Ukraine is much more favorably disposed toward everything Western and everything American because of the exciting wind of transformations that swept through the Ukrainian political landscape last year. Its political culture looks modern, attractive, refined and European. For example, at the end of last year a new law was passed that allowed former citizens of other countries to participate in Ukrainian poli...

Dr. Can Erimtan is an independent scholar residing in İstanbul, with a wide interest in the politics, history and culture of the Balkans and the Greater Middle East.  Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015, after armed gunmen stormed the offices leaving at least one dead according to a police source and "six seriously injured" police officers according to City Hall. (AFP Photo/Philippe Dupeyrat) 4238 The recent violent outrage in Paris that saw cartoonists and other innocents killed is but the latest example of the way in which Muslim extremists nowadays manage to occupy the airwaves and dominate the news broadcasts. But rather than proving that Islam is just a religion that cannot coexist with modern life and values, a closer look at the origins of Islamic extremism and terrorism betrays its indebtedness to geo-political machinations and the legacy of the Cold War...

All three suspects were killed and 16 hostages freed LIZZIE DEARDEN Two days of manhunts and sieges came to an abrupt and violent end in the space of just five minutes today with the deaths of the brothers who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre and a man who seized a Kosher supermarket in an attempt to help them escape. Gunmen Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, and their alleged associate Amedy Coulibaly all died during the operations. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said several people have been handed preliminary charges in the investigation following the three-day rampage, including unidentified family members of the three suspects. Coulibaly had burst into the Hyper Cacher shop earlier in the day "shooting in all directions", sparking panic and a police lock-down of the surrounding area. Four people were killed as he made his bloody entrance, with their bodies still there when police raided it hours later. After hours of eerie quiet in the Parisian suburb of V...

LIZZIE DEARDEN Police are still hunting the girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly after the gunman was killed during the violent end of the siege of a Jewish grocery shop in Paris, in which he killed four hostages. The whereabouts of Hayat Boumeddiene are unknown after police named her as an "armed and dangerous" suspect. She was believed to be Coulibaly's accomplice during the shooting of a female police officer on Thursday. Boumeddiene is believed to be of Algerian descent but changed her name to make it appear more French and reportedly worked as a cashier before being radicalised. The 26-year-old is believed to have been in a relationship with Amedy Coulibaly since 2010She and Coulibaly are believed to have married in a religious ceremony in 2009, which is not recognised in French law. It has emerged that the pair had exchanged about 500 phone calls with the companion of one of the Kouachi brothers during 2014. The attack on the supermarket was carefully co-ordinated wit...

Several top officials of the al-Qaeda-linked group have either defected or have been killed in recent months Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab has killed by firing squad four men accused of spying for the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The men, who included two government soldiers, were shot in front of a large crowd in the southern town of Bardhere, witnesses said. A court run by al-Shabab had earlier convicted them of spying for the CIA, Ethiopia and the Somali government. US air strikes have killed two senior al-Shabab commanders in recent months. 'Blindfolded' "One of the spies worked with the CIA and facilitated the killing of an al-Shabab commander," a judge in the al-Shabab-run court said. He did not name the commander, but al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US air strike in September and last month its intelligence chief, Tahlil Abdishakur, was assassinated in a similar strike in southern Somalia. Somalia's army has been...

Boko Haram controls large swathes of territory in north-eastern Nigeria Nigeria's militant Islamists have carried out a second attack on the key north-eastern town of Baga, an official has told the BBC. Boko Haram fighters burnt down almost the entire town on Wednesday, after over-running a military base on Saturday, Musa Alhaji Bukar said. Bodies lay strewn on Baga's streets, amid fears that some 2,000 people had been killed in the raids, he added. Boko Haram launched a military campaign in 2009 to create an Islamic state. It has taken control of many towns and villages in north-eastern Nigeria in the last year. The conflict has displaced at least 1.5 million people, while more than 2,000 were killed last year.Abandoned On Monday, lawmaker Maina Maaji Lawan said Boko Haram controlled 70% of Borno state, which is worst-affected by the insurgency. Mr Bukar, a senior government official in the area, said that fleeing residents told him that the town, which had a population of abo...

A general view shows firefighters, police officers and forensics gathered in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015 (AFP Photo / Martin Bureau) Download video (126.86 MB) Three gunmen are on the run after killing 10 journalists and two policemen at the Paris headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Police launched a manhunt and raised security levels in the French capital. READ MORE: Fatal shooting at Charlie Hebdo HQ in Paris LIVE UPDATES At least two black-hooded men gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles entered the building of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in the 11th district on Wednesday morning. Some reports suggested that they even had a rocket-propelled grenade. “Somebody who was nearby on the roof and saw much of the incident said three policemen then arrived on a pushbike,” Henry Samuel, the Daily Telegraph's Paris correspondent, told Sky News. "When they saw how armed these men were they...

Brazil # 10 Kicking off the list we have Brazil at number 1o. Brazil currently has more than 300,000 active military personal for a population of just under 200 million. They also have a budget of nearly 23 billion dollars to go along with that. Even though South America is a relatively peaceful place, that hasn’t stopped Brazil from becoming a military powerhouse. Italy # 9 Coming in number 9 for the most powerful militaries in the world is Italy. Even though Italy has a slightly smaller active military force then Brazil, they have a more powerful Navy and and slightly higher defense budget. Italy helps make Europe a force to be reckoned with. South Korea # 8 Coming in at number 8 is South Korea. Boasting an active military with nearly 700,00 active personal South Korea has become a legitimate force. Even though they have no nuclear capability, being backed by the United States has helped South Korea become much more threatening than their neighbors to the north. Germany # 7 At our...