US efforts to train the Malian military in its fight against Islamist militants did not prevent disasters for the Malians in 2009 and 2011. What went wrong?
Joshua Foust passes along an interesting look at the aftermath of revolution in Tunisia.
The recent abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria brought renewed attention to Boko Haram, the militant group widely thought to be behind the attack. The inflow of military weaponry into Nigeria has given Boko Haram greater lethal abilities (via Naomi Weinberger).
The peace that wasn’t: Rwanda 20 years after the genocide (via Aliza Rebecca Luft). Last week Jay Ulfelder looked at the risk of future mass killing in the country.
Despite the Russian government’s denials, new photographic evidence that Russian military and intelligence personnel are on the ground in eastern Ukraine. “Moscow isn’t even really trying to hide the fact that Ukraine’s ‘pro-Russian militias’ are Russian soldiers,” comments Doug Saunders on Twitter. Last week Janine Davidson looked at the dilemma the simple Russian strategy of removing insignias from its forces poses for Kiev — crackdown militarily and draw Russian ire, or do nothing and watch professional soldiers nibble away at Ukrainian sovereignty.
Hungry Syrians flee to government-controlled areas, where UN food aid is more readily available than areas of the country held by rebels — a deliberate strategy by the Assad regime. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stresses that all sides are blocking food aid from reaching civilians.
On the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, memories from the photographer who took the iconic photograph of a single man facing down a tank column.
Who remembers the coup, anyway? After an initial decision to block big arms transfers to Egypt after the summer 2013 overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, the United States will provide ten attack helicopters to the Egyptian military.
0 comments