ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Italian military analyst Manlio Dinucci explains what he believes is the biggest danger emanating from the US deployment of its missile defense network in Romania and Poland. NATO officials' explanations aside, everyone, including the Russian president , seems to understand perfectly well that the US's shiny new Aegis Ashore missile defense system in Deveselu, Romania, and the one being built in Redzikowo, Poland are directed against Russia. And the reason, writes Il Manifesto military analyst Manlio Dinucci, is not because the system threatens to intercept Russian ICBMs and put the nuclear balance of power in jeopardy. "The reality," he writes, "is much worse." © SPUTNIK/ ALEXANDER VILF US Missile Defense in Eastern Europe: How Russia Will Respond In the course of his meeting with leaders from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway in Washington last week, President Obama reiterated his 'concerns' "about Russia's growing aggressiv

By Pepe Escobar Let’s start by examining what the Dragon himself – President Xi Jinping – has to say about China being largely derided in influential Beltway circles as a House of Cards. Xi has forcefully dismissed the notion that a House of Cards power struggle has been raging at the rarified heights of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yet at the same time he’s adamant; “conspirators”, “careerists”, “cabals” and “cliques” are attempting to undermine the CCP from within. Thus, with ironic/poetic justice, a 42-part series on corruption in China – titled In the Name of the People and financed by the Middle Kingdom’s top law enforcement agency – is bound to go live before the end of 2016, featuring a CCP stalwart as the bad guy (that’s a first). Call him the Chinese Frank Underwood. This means that what Xi is saying – and acting — live will be mirrored on hundreds of millions of Chinese screens, pitting conflicting factions within the 88 million-member CCP. Xi’s war on corruption has

The Worldwide control of humanity’s economic, social and political activities is under the helm of US corporate and military power. Underlying this process are various schemes of direct and indirect military intervention. These US sponsored strategies ultimately consist in a process of global subordination. Where is the Threat? The 2000 Global Report published in 1980 had outlined “the State of the World” by focusing on so-called “level of threats” which might negatively influence or undermine US interests. Twenty years later, US strategists, in an attempt to justify their military interventions in different parts of the World, have conceptualized the greatest fraud in US history, namely “the Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT). The latter, using a fabricated pretext constitutes a global war against all those who oppose US hegemony. A modern form of slavery, instrumented through militarization and the “free market” has unfolded. Major elements of the conquest  and world domination strat

Post-colonial empires are complex organizations. They are organized on a multi-tiered basis, ranging from relative autonomous national and regional allies to subservient vassal states, with variations in between. By James Petras In the contemporary period, the idea of empire does not operate as a stable global structure, though it may aspire and strive for such. While the US is the major imperial power, it does not dominate some leading global political-economic and military powers, like Russia and China. Imperial powers, like the US, have well-established regional satellites but have also suffered setbacks and retreats from independent local economic and political challengers. Empire is not a fixed structure rigidly embedded in military or economic institutions. It contains sets of competing forces and relations, which can change over time and circumstances. Moreover, imperial allies and clients do not operate through fixed patterns of submission. While there is submission t

RT NATO’s former deputy military chief in Europe says his book, a fictional story which describes a nuclear war with Russia over the Baltic nations taking place in 2017, is based on an “entirely plausible” scenario. General Sir Richard Shirreff, from Britain, served at the second-highest NATO military office in Europe between 2011 and 2014. He says his experience acquired in the alliance of war-gaming future conflicts helped him model the narrative for the book. According to his scenario, starting next year Russia would first occupy Ukraine to secure a land route to Crimea and then invade the three Baltic nations, all of which are members of NATO. The move, Shirreff argued, would be driven by the perception of NATO’s weakness and Russia’s opposition to what it sees as the alliance’s attempts to encircle it. “We need to judge President [Vladimir] Putin by his deeds not his words,” the retired general told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.“He has invaded Georgia, he has invaded the Crimea, he

Russia will modernize an early warning radar station located near Sevastopol in Crimea to detect possible missile launches from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, according to the newspaper Izvestia. When restored, the station will be capable of tracking down hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles launched from ships in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea at ranges of up to 3,000 kilometers. The source said that the Dnepr station's equipment will operate in the super-high frequency band, which is expected to increase the effectiveness of the Russian radar station in the city of Armavir, which operates in the ultra-high frequency band. Izvestia quoted military expert Vadim Kozyulin as saying that the Dnepr radar station will help provide Russia with all-round defense against sophisticated missile attacks. " For example, it takes a US Tomahawk cruise missile about two hours to reach Moscow, and duly detecting such a missile will be precisely the task of the new Russ

By Finian Cunningham The deployment this week of a US missile system in Eastern Europe is another step towards all-out global war. Despite Western propaganda demonizing Russia, the truth is that it is Russian military might that is actually holding the line to prevent such a cataclysm. The United States and its NATO allies are already at war with Russia. This is not hyperbole. It is fact. The US and its allies are  amassing weapons and troops on Russia’s borders , and engaging in simulated attacks from various directions. Orwellian language of “war games” in Western media serves to diminish the disturbing fact that NATO forces are preparing offensive strikes on Russia. War machinery on both sides are locked on. The encounter last month of the US warship with Russian fighter jets in the Baltic Sea is but one of many such close encounters occurring almost every week. Granted, weapons have not actually been fired yet. Nevertheless, the weapon machinery is engaged. Again, West

A shocking video released by Islamic State shows two French boys brutally murdering two pro-government Syrians in Aleppo. The footage, partially in French and titled ‘Sur les traces de mon pere’ (‘In the footsteps of my father’), features two French teenagers named ‘Abu Musa’ab’ and ‘Abu Qaqa’a’. The boys are allegedly brothers, brought to Syria with their father, who was later killed in fighting. The two men murdered in the video were supposedly found guilty of espionage, Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) Telegram account stated. In the video, two French teenagers are shown living the IS ‘life’, and being raised as jihadists. They fire at posters of world leaders, including French President Francois Hollande. Afterwards, they are shown executing two unarmed Syrian men, claiming that one of them is a spy for the Nusayri Army (Alawites, the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad), and the other a soldier of the Nusayri Army. Children have often become a frightening tool of