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Showing posts from June 7, 2020

The Problem of Piracy in Somalia

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The phenomenon of Somali piracy has received considerable media coverage in recent years. In essence, this is a truly unprecedented phenomenon. I also consider the way of its solution at the international level, and finally the foreign policy role of the European Union as a leading actor in the current global crisis management, to be unique. Let us now look at the problem of Somali piracy in context. Interestingly, maritime piracy is of great interest to the media, although not as many soldiers are involved in anti-piracy operations as in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. [1] I therefore consider it important to reflect on the importance of Somali piracy. What threat does it pose to the world today? Is it worthwhile to use naval forces against him at all? What are the costs of tolerating or combating piracy? And how do pirate organizations work? Historically, piracy has always appeared in areas of Hobbs anarchy and injustice. [2] For their activities, pirates necessarily needed a terre

Meddling with history: Tearing down statues is not really confronting the nightmare of colonialism and racism

It was with the publication of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) and Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) that departments of social and political sciences, of history and anthropology began to reckon with the exaggerations and distortions about the East that existed in western histories, especially viewing eastern cultures as exotic, backward, uncivilised and at times treacherous. The objective of the academic world was to confront the colonial world and its impact in all its murky and hegemonic significance. In the wake of the brutal racist politics across the world, discussions and demonstrations targeting the colonial symbols of atrocities and aggression have set many countries ablaze. A bronze statue of Jefferson Davis, the slave-owning President during the American Civil War, was removed from a prominent position at the University of Texas lately. The statue of the the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down in Bristol and thrown into the

Isis operations increase in Iraq as coalition withdraws

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Terrorist group staged at least 566 attacks in first three months of the year Isis terrorists have ramped up attacks in Iraq, forcing government troops to step up counter-insurgency operations just as western members of the anti-Isis coalition have pared back their presence in the country. The jihadi group staged at least 566 attacks in Iraq in the first three months of the year and 1,669 during 2019, a 13 per cent increase from the previous year, according to security analysts Michael Knights and Alex Almeida, who track the group’s activities. Isis is a shadow of the powerful force that conquered an area the size of Britain across Iraq and Syria in 2014, ruling about 8m people. But last month its fighters staged a new offensive, killing at least 19 members of the Iraqi security forces, according to local media reports. The terrorists are also accused of burning crops and persecuting communities in parts of western, eastern and northern Iraq. The jihadis have exploited a partial drawdo