EUROPE POLAND Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters at a news conference on Friday that he too wants out of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Poland joins the United States, Hungary, and most recently Austria and the Czech Republic in either withdrawing from the accord or expressing an intent to withdraw. SPAIN … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: November 2 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN The Russian government has reportedly been in contact with several Afghan political leaders, including former President Hamid Karzai, to try to bring them to Moscow for peace talks with the Taliban. This is...pretty inappropriate, to be honest, and current President Ashraf Ghani is justifiably pissed that the Russians are basically trying to bypass … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: November 2 2018

SYRIA According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian government shelling killed at least eight people on Friday in the town of Jarjanaz, inside the demilitarized zone in Idlib province. Government forces and some rebel groups in the province--Hayat Tahrir al-Sham being most prominent among them--have continued a low-level exchange of fire in and around … Continue reading Middle East update: November 2 2018

MIGRATION Thanks to assholes like Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, and Matteo Salvini, the global discussion about migration generally revolves around how supposedly dangerous and destabilizing they are. But it's worth considering just how desperate migrants have to be when the act of migrating is as dangerous as it is: An Associated Press tally has documented … Continue reading World update: November 1 2018

SYRIA US and Turkish forces finally began their joint patrols north of Manbij on Thursday. Reuters reported that at least one joint patrol was sighted about 20 kilometers outside the town. It's unclear whether the Turks are going to push to extend these patrols into Manbij itself, but the Kurdish council running the town has … Continue reading Middle East update: November 1 2018

Happy Halloween to those who are celebrating! EUROPE RUSSIA A suicide bomber struck the Federal Security Service (FSB) office in the city of Arkhangelsk on Wednesday, injuring three people (the bomber obviously died). So far there's been no motive offered for the bombing, which is a fairly unusual occurrence in Russia outside of the North Caucasus … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: October 31 2018

Happy Halloween for anyone celebrating! ASIA AFGHANISTAN An Afghan army helicopter crashed on its way from Farah province to Herat province on Wednesday, killing 25 people including the head of the Farah provincial council and a western regional Afghan military commander. The Taliban claims to have shot the helicopter down but Afghan officials have disputed … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: October 31 2018

Happy Halloween to those celebrating! MIDDLE EAST The Carnegie Endowment has produced a several-part series on the "hybridization" of national security in several Arab countries: Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. What they're talking about is the increasing reliance these states have on non-state militias to backstop their national militaries. These countries have played around … Continue reading Middle East update: October 31 2018

ASIA KAZAKHSTAN Central Asia analyst Natalie Hall considers who might eventually succeed 78 year old Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev: Kazakhstan’s power structure, like many post-Soviet states, is pyramidic in nature. From his seat of power at the top, a series of patronage networks flows down the ranks of government, distributing money, favors, and power to … Continue reading World update: October 30 2018