PHOTO: The new Syrian Government Today’s Chatham House meeting is chaired by Raya Jalabi, Middle East Correspondent, Financial Times. On the panel are: Dr Haid Haid, MENA Programme, Rime Allaf, Syrian writer, formerly Chatham House and Dr Ibrahim Al-Assil, Belfer Center, Harvard University. It is a year since the rapid…
The Chatham House event, led by Dr. Renad Mansour, highlighted challenges in Iraq’s upcoming elections, including sectarian politics and government formation. The presidency is expected to be awarded to a Kurdish party, but significant obstacles remain, including political fragmentation and public disillusionment, as citizens seek improved governance and basic services.
View More Chatham House: Iraq’s 2025 Elections: What comes next?
The meeting discusses the UK’s aid budget amid global aid cuts, primarily due to reduced US funding. Speakers emphasize the geopolitical impact, highlighting how aid affects conflict resolution, health, and climate issues. They call for renewed commitment to development, addressing poverty, and the need for a cohesive international framework, especially regarding the UN.
View More Chatham House: Aid in an age of security: What should the UK’s global priorities be?
Drawing on material from two out of the three strands of DD102 study materials, discuss some of the ways in which differences and inequalities can both change and persist over time. The two topics I have chosen from two strands are City Road, Cardiff from the introductory strand, which looks…
View More Differences and Inequalities
The content discusses the concept of ‘making and remaking’ through the experiences of three individuals on City Road, Cardiff. Nof Al-Kelaby showcases resilience by adapting his business to new demographics. Shari Hall enhances local businesses through her blog, fostering virtual connections. John exemplifies the challenges of homelessness, highlighting complex social dynamics.
View More Connections and Disconnections on City Road, Cardiff
I think everyone that has ever heard of Boris Johnson associates him with lies. Oborne, who is an established veteran political journalist, in this relatively brief text, exposes the extent of the former Conservative Prime Minister’s almost total aversion to the truth. He reckons Johnson has told over thousands of…
View More Review: The Assault On Truth – Boris Johnson and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism – by Peter Oborne
If you were a hermit living in a remote cave then I expect that even you would be well aware that Prince Harry and his wife have been in the news recently quite a lot. Initially I decided I was going to avoid the mass hysteria and not tune into…
View More Review: Spare – by Prince Harry
This is one of the very best books I have ever read. It is up to date material and full of cutting edge military theory and ideas and I believe is critical essential reading for any politician or military personnel, especially those who conduct their employment in the NATO led…
View More Review: The Dragons and the Snakes – How The Rest Learned to Fight The West – by David Kilcullen
This book was written in 1990 and is thus a bit dated. The postscript announces the start of the first Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Post World War 1 saw most of the current political boundaries drawn in the Near East or as we now most predominantly…
View More Review: The Near East Since The First World War – by M.E.Yapp
This is the second book that I have read by David Kilcullen. The author is a former Australian soldier and a senior advisor to the US Military in addition to being a leading theorist of modern warfare. This book looks deeply at the fundamental Islamic terrorist state ISIS. ISIS grew…
View More Review: Blood Year – Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror – by David Kilcullen
Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui are from a new generation of Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers. They have mused upon the situation of modern military affairs and developed this theoretical book on war to describe the status quo as it was around the turn of the Millenium. The book is…
View More Review: Unrestricted Warfare – Wake Up, America! China’s Master Plan to Destroy America
David Kilcullen is an experienced Australian military professional. He is a senior advisor to the US Military. In this book, Kilcullen describes the recent Western conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq as relative anomalies in the progress of future wars and conflict. He focus on the Urban, networked littoral. Giant coastal…
View More Review: Out of the Mountains – The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla – by David Kilcullen
Although by the time I finally finished reading this book it was perhaps over a decade old and hence due the hi-tech nature of the subject, perhaps dated, I gained a lot of new knowledge about the robotics industry, technological progress in society and in particular, the application of robotics…
View More Review: Wired for War by P.W.Singer
They say that truth is often stranger than fiction and this book that I have given a 5 star rating reads very fluently and tells the real story of British secret service agents as they engage in the art of espionage across the globe. True heroes and heroines emerge as…
View More Review: The Art Of Betrayal – Life and Death in the British Secret Service – by Gordon Corera
This is an excellent introductory text for those wishing to better understand the complex details of the rise of Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL. From its arrival due to the Syrian Civil War and its cancerous spread into post-war Iraq, this extremist-terrorist Sunni Islamic (Wahhabi) nation/fundamentalist organisation, has been indefatigable.…
View More Review: The Rise Of Islamic State – by Patrick Cockburn