ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Michael Hudson - Guns and Butter Dr. Hudson discusses his paper, The IMF Changes Its Rules To Isolate China and Russia; implications of the four policy changes at the International Monetary Fund in its role as enforcer of inter-government debts; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an alternative military alliance to NATO; the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) threatens to replace the IMF and World Bank; the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty; the China International Payments System (CIPS); WTO investment treaties; Ukraine and Greece; different philosophies of development between east and west; break up of the post WWII dollarized global financial system; the world dividing into two camps. Posted February 05, 2016 A New Global Financial Cold War By Michael Hudson A nightmare scenario of U.S. geopolitical strategists is coming true: foreign independence from U.S.-centered financial and diplomatic control. China and Russia are investing in neighboring economies on

By Moon Of Alabama The Russian military said Thursday that it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect that Turkey is making intensive preparations for a military invasion of neighboring Syria. Images of a checkpoint on the border between the Turkish town of Reyhanli and the town of Sarmada in Syrian taken in late October and late January show a buildup of transportation infrastructure that could be used for moving in troops, ammunition and weapons, spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in an English-language written statement. He said these were among growing signs of "hidden preparation of the Turkish armed forces for active actions on the territory of Syria. ... A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the ministry would have no immediate comment. The Russian high command press briefing (vid with English subtitles) includes the pictures of the border post. Turkey yesterday prohibited a Russian reconnaissance "Open Skies Treaty" flight over the Turkish-Syria

By Mike Whitney “This is the beginning of the end of jihadi presence in Aleppo. After 4 years of war and terror, people can finally see the end in sight.” — Edward Dark, Twitter, Moon of Alabama A last ditch effort to stop a Russian-led military offensive in northern Syria ended in failure on Wednesday when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and heavy Russian air cover broke a 40-month siege on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in northwestern Aleppo province. The Obama administration had hoped that it could forestall the onslaught by cobbling together an eleventh-hour ceasefire agreement at the Geneva peace talks. But when the news that Syrian armored units had crashed through al Nusra’s defenses and forced the jihadists to retreat, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the negotiations tacitly acknowledging that the mission had failed. “I have indicated from the first day that I won’t talk for the sake of talking,” the envoy told reporters, saying

BEIRUT: Syrian government forces and allied fighters seized the town of Ataman near the southern city of Deraa Friday, Hezbollah's Al Manar television and a Syrian monitoring group said, building on gains made last week in the province. The recapture from rebels of Ataman, around 3 km (2 miles) north of Deraa, came a day after dozens of air strikes believed to be carried out by Russian warplanes targeted the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Syrian army and its allies, which include Lebanese group Hezbollah, have in recent days made significant advances against insurgents in the northern province of Aleppo. The Russian-backed assaults have helped derail peace talks in Geneva.

At least 21 civilians, including three children, were killed Thursday in Russian strikes on rebel-held districts of Syria's Aleppo city, activists said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes on six neighborhoods of the northern city had also wounded many, and that the toll could rise. The raids come as government forces press an offensive north of the city, backed by Russian warplanes, to encircle rebels in the east of Aleppo city. Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman said it was first time his organisation had been able to confirm Russian air strikes on Aleppo city since Moscow began its intervention on Sept. 30. Until now Russian strikes had been concentrated on Aleppo province, he said. Aleppo city has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012. In an operation launched on Monday, government forces have now almost encircled the east of the city, cuttin

After nine years in office, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will step down in December perhaps without achieving one of his more ambitious and elusive political goals: ensuring the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). “This year marks 20 years since it has been open for signature,” he said last week, pointing out that the recent nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – the fourth since 2006 — was “deeply destabilizing for regional security and seriously undermines international non-proliferation efforts.” Now is the time, he argued, to make the final push to secure the CTBT’s entry into force, as well as to achieve its universality. In the interim, states should consider how to strengthen the current defacto moratorium on nuclear tests, he advised, “so that no state can use the current status of the CTBT as an excuse to conduct a nuclear test.” But how close – or how further away– are we from the CTBT coming into force? Jayant

By Roberto Savio We are witnessing the slow agony of the dream of European integration, disintegrating without a single demonstration occuring anywhere, among its 500 millions of citizens. It is clear that European institutions are in an existential crisis but the debate is only at intergovernmental level. This proves clearly that European citizens do not feel close to Brussels. Gone are the 1950s, when young people mobilized in the Youth Federalist Movement, with activists from the Federal Movement led by Altiero Spinelli, and the massive campaign for a Europe that would transcend national boundaries, a rallying theme of the intellectuals of the time. It has been a crescendo of crisis. First came the North-South divide, with a North that did not want to rescue the South, and made austerity a monolithic taboo, with Germany as its inflexible leader. Greece was the chosen place to clash and win, even if its budget was just 4 percent of the whole European Union. The front for fiscal disci

The Treaty on Open Skies which came into force in 2002 allows unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of its 34 signatories, which includes Turkey. However the Russian An-30B plane was banned from conducting its surveillance flight over Turkish territory which was scheduled for February 1-5, without any prior warning. “After the arrival of the Russian mission to Turkey and the announcement of the desired itinerary, the Turkish military officials refused to allow the inspection flight citing an order from the Turkish Foreign Ministry,” the head of the ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, Sergey Ryzhkov, said in a statement. This is the first time that Turkey has refused a Russian observation flight over its territory. Since 2006 under the Treaty on Open Skies, Russia conducted approximately two observation flights a year. Turkey has flown over Russian airspace approximately four times a year. But as tensions between Turkey and Russia intensified following