At first sight, Arab parliaments seem to have reverted back to their pre-2011 role as empty shells, rubber-stamping the government’s decisions. This Alert, however, reveals a more nuanced state of affairs whereby Arab parliamentarians in some countries are – slowly – growing into their roles.
Half-way through a year that many dubbed ‘a milestone for African elections’, a mixed picture emerges. President Buhari’s inauguration in Nigeria celebrated the victory of an opposition party in peaceful, free elections. Yet Sudan’s sham election, Ethiopia’s marginal opening and Burundi’s escalating violence tell another story.
Although President Putin enjoys a remarkably free hand abroad, he still operates within constraints. Over the last nine months, Russians have become increasingly hostile to ‘foreign adventures’ as economic problems have mounted. What effect, if any, will this have on Russian foreign policy?
Industrial espionage – i.e. the theft of trade secrets, intellectual property, and scientific know-how from enterprises and research centres – is on the rise worldwide. This Alert assesses state-sponsored industrial espionage in peacetime, and seeks to highlight the threat it poses to national and economic security.
Despite economic growth returning to Europe, defence budgets continued to fall in 2014. Given the worsening security situation in Europe’s neighbourhood, a renewed commitment to defence would represent an important demonstration of solidarity – both within the Union and to partners across the Atlantic.
In the light of the country’s recent signing of a Framework Participation Agreement with the EU, and the upcoming White Paper on defence that Canberra is due to release before the end of the year, this Alert examines Australia’s record of security and defence cooperation with the Union and its posture as a security actor in the international arena.
This Alert analyses the ‘track record’ of sanctions as a foreign policy tool. It gives a brief historical overview of the practice of sanctions, showing how in recent years international sanctions have tended to shift from being comprehensive to targeted, and examines the ‘lessons learned’.
Russia’s information war in Ukraine is rooted in military theory. Drawing on a Hobbesian vision of the world as an arena of incessant inter-state conflict, this theory sets out techniques that aggressors can use to subvert the information space of its adversaries. In Ukraine, Russia turned theory into practice.
It is now four decades since the outbreak of Lebanon’s civil war. But with similar conflicts spreading across the Middle East, the country’s tragic history can still provide useful lessons on how to end such violence.
In 2014 the world spent more on defence than ever before, with three players standing out as essential drivers of this trend: China, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Are their heavy investments in defence having an impact on their behaviour in their respective regional environments?