ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and capitalist corporations that support the loosening of foreign employment are at the bottom ladder of evolving into yet another cultural wipeout. Indeed, one only needs to visit major cities in Europe including Brussels and Paris to know that yesteryear seems like a distant dream. After all, issues related to crime, the breakdown of the social fabric in certain parts of these cities, the specter of terrorism, issues related to narcotics, and other important negative factors – all point to deterioration and increasingly divided areas. In other words, exclusive zones are in a short-distance of “no-go areas.” Therefore, it could well be that certain mega-capitalist corporations and sectors, along with the current leader of Japan, are on the crest of following an uncertain cultural and ethnic future based on the European disease that is dividing many nations. If Japan needs to follow the multi-ethnic reality of certain European nations like Belgium, ...

Like many conflicts, it shows the weakness of the current international system that obsesses over arbitrary borders that date back a hundred years. Over the weekend, fighting erupted in the Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. As many as 30 soldiers were killed on both sides and there were also civilian casualties. An Azerbaijani helicopter was reported to have been shot down and reports noted the involvement of heavy artillery and tanks in the battle over a contested region that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but functions as an autonomous Armenian-run self-declared republic. This is an incredibly complex situation that threatens to draw in Turkey and Russia, as well as other regional powers, such as Israel and Iran, all of whom have relations and interests in Armenia and Azerbaijan, and long and convoluted histories with both. For some, the conflict has echoes of a Muslim-Christian confrontation, but others will see echoe...

K.N. Pandita In October 1993, I was in Brussels attending the Socialist Group of European Parliament’s seminar on Kashmir. Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Prof. Bhim Singh were also there. A group from PoK lead by Amanullah Khan of JKLF was also attending. Around midnight, my telephone rang and a local friend on the other end said that Amanullah Khan had been arrested. The Indian government had issued a red-corner letter to Interpol wanting his arrest for the murder of Indian diplomat Mhatre in London. The next day, the British Parliament passed a resolution demanding the Belgian government release Amanullah Khan forthwith. Belgium obliged. I asked my Belgian friend, who, I knew, had close contacts with the Pakistanis how the release came about that soon. She said,” Brussels is the hotbed of jihadis in Europe.” During the past year, terrorist attacks have occurred in many places, including Paris, Turkey, San Bernardino, Israel, Toronto, Ivory Coast, Pathankot, and more recently Belgium. These ...

Every time we tweet, retweet, write a blog post, or publish an article about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we become unwilling combatants in a decades long war that, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we know very little about. The so-called ‘frozen conflict’ (a cleverly configured yet analytically useless oxymoron if there ever was one) is less about the contested territory that spawned it, and more about deflecting attention away from two illiberal regimes that have grown disparagingly repressive and inattentive to the needs of their people. In this sense, the attention we give it, void any meaningful details about the conditions on the front, or developments leading to its resolution, end up boosting, in one way or another, these regime’s efforts to one-up each other in the world of social media and world opinion. Both the Azerbaijani and Armenian governments have spent enormous sums on building up their armed forces, while their economies have grown increasingly fragile, and th...

Exclusive: Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal remains a top global security threat, as Islamic jihadists penetrate many of the nation’s political, educational and military institutions, says Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Dozens of world leaders are arriving in Washington, D. C. for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, a biennial event dedicated to minimizing the threat of loose nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists or rogue nations. The summit couldn’t be more timely in view of recent revelations that militants linked to the Islamic State recruited two employees at a Belgian nuclear plant where an insider in 2014 drained thousands of gallons of lubricating oil, severely damaging its turbines. A nuclear test detonation carried out in Nevada on April 18, 1953. The summit also comes just days after North Korea released a video threatening a nuclear first strike against Washington — an unrealistic but unsettling boast from one of the world’s most repressive and impenet...

Although Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) lacks the ability to create a nuclear weapon, it is set to seize ready-made nuclear material, and is capable of making a ‘dirty bomb’, Jack Rice, former CIA officer and international lawyer has told RT. The threat of nuclear terrorism topped the agenda of the Washington Nuclear Security Summit. In the wake of last week's bombings in Brussels, the alarm has been raised over Islamic State terrorists planning an attack on a nuclear facility. There are also concerns IS could attempt to steal nuclear materials to create a so-called 'dirty bomb'. However, there are reports that terrorists have already seized almost 40 kilos of uranium compounds from the University of Mosul - one of the biggest scientific hubs in Iraq, which fell into IS hands two years ago. In 2014, Iraq's ambassador to the UN warned the organization about the incident. RT: The warning from Iraq came back in 2014, yet it seems to have been ignored for so long....

The Syrian Army is unearthing a mass grave consisting of at least 40 corpses, many of them women and children. They were butchered by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the recently liberated ancient city of Palmyra. The grave was discovered by engineers and “popular defense forces” in the Masakin al-Jahizia neighborhood of the city, which lies only 500 meters from the ancient ruins, SANA reports . كشف مقبرة جماعية في تدمر تضم جثث أطفال ونساء https://t.co/jfnNsOYlWO #سوريا pic.twitter.com/dh6JqibdMi — @alalam_news (@alalam_news) April 1, 2016 So far the army has recovered 25 corpses. Among those killed by IS were three children and five females. As the excavation proceeded, 15 more corpses were unearthed – all of them women and children.   Initial examination of the bodies revealed that some of the victims had been beheaded while other had been brutally tortured before their deaths. The army continues to excavate the mass grave, fearing that more bodies may be found. Engine...

Adama Simila wears a knife tied to his belt by a piece of rope, his only protection against the Boko Haram group that has repeatedly targeted his home town in remote northern Cameroon. While the threat once came from heavily armed, battle-hardened fighters crossing from neighbouring Nigeria, today Simila knows he is more likely to die at the hands of a teenage girl strapped with explosives. "We're here to look out for suicide bombers," said the 31-year-old, a member of a local civilian defence force in the town of Kerawa. After watching its influence spread during a six-year campaign that has killed about 20,000 people, Nigeria has now united with its neighbours to stamp out Boko Haram. A regional offensive last year drove the fighters from most of their traditional strongholds, denying them their dream of an Islamic emirate in northeastern Nigeria. A 8,700-strong regional force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria is seeking to finish the job. Now, ...