Blog

Iran’s Raisi welcomes invitation from king to visit Saudi Arabia

19Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Iran’s Raisi welcomes invitation from king to visit Saudi Arabia

Iranian president has received an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia following reconciliation deal, Iranian official says. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has favourably received an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to visit the kingdom following the reconciliation deal between the two countries, an Iranian official has said. “In a letter to President Raisi … the King of Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal between the two brotherly countries [and] invited him to Riyadh,” tweeted Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, adding to this Sunday message that “Raisi welcomed the invitation”. The two regional heavyweights announced on March 10 a Chinese-brokered deal to restore ties seven years after they were severed. Riyadh cut relations af...

Geopolitical and Technocratic: EU International Actorness and Russia’s War Against Ukraine

16Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Europe

Geopolitical and Technocratic: EU International Actorness and Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 marked the start of the largest and most brutal war at the heart of the European continent since World War II. It inevitably came as a "cold shower" for the EU and Member States' politicians, demonstrating with absolute certainty the fragility of the international and European security order. The EU responded to the invasion with unprecedented sanctions against Russia and Belarus and multi-faceted resolute support to Ukraine. The latter included the breaking of many previously existing taboos, such as the first ever use of the European Peace Facility to procure weapons for a third country at war or offering collective protection to about 8 million Ukrainian citizens and residents, fleeing the war. The war prompted EU le...

Geopolitical risk: raw materials and technological dependence

16Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Future Technology, Technology and Innovation

Geopolitical risk: raw materials and technological dependence

By *Raquel Jorge Ricart Raw materials are the great overlooked in the global technological competition. In 1992 the father of China’s economic revolution, Deng Xiaoping, said that ‘the Middle East has the oil, but China has the rare earths’. Rare earths, and critical raw materials in general, have been the great forgotten commodities in the geopolitical competition of recent years, which has largely focused on which country dominates certain technologies –artificial intelligence, semiconductors and so many others– and not so much on what means were necessary to achieve dominance. China controls 36.7% of global rare earth reserves. Brazil and Vietnam, the next countries on the list, together stockpile as much as China does alone (18.3% each). They are followed by Russia, with 10% of ...

Iraq’s new geopolitics and the importance of regional engagement: A view from Brussels

16Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Middle East, Regions

Iraq’s new geopolitics and the importance of regional engagement: A view from Brussels

By *Domènec Ruiz Devesa, Emiliano Alessandri Following the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States’ invasion of Iraq in March 2003 marked one of the opening salvos of what has so far turned out to be a conflict-ridden 21st century. Whereas the 1990-1991 Gulf War was heralded by then-President George H. W. Bush as the founding moment of a “New World Order,” as Washington successfully mobilized a vast United Nations-mandated coalition to repel Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the second Gulf War epitomized the emerging instability in the international system caused by the excesses of America’s “unipolar moment,” the retreat of multilateralism, a Global South increasingly critical of Western-led initiatives, and the rise of non-state actors and terrorist networks. Although the high...

Russian Warplane Hits American Drone Over Black Sea, U.S. Says

15Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Privacy, Military Technology

Russian Warplane Hits American Drone Over Black Sea, U.S. Says

The incident was the first known physical contact between the two militaries since the war in Ukraine began last year. WASHINGTON — A Russian warplane struck a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, hitting the drone’s propeller and causing its American operators to bring it down in international waters, according to the Pentagon, in the first known physical contact between the Russian and American militaries since the war in Ukraine started last February. The downing of the MQ-9 Reaper, a workhorse of the American military’s airborne reconnaissance fleet, immediately escalated tensions between the White House and the Kremlin as U.S. officials accused the Russian forces involved in the incident of behaving dangerously. American military officials said the unarmed Reape...

Think Like a Spy: How Open Source Intelligence Can Give You a Competitive Advantage

15Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Privacy

Think Like a Spy: How Open Source Intelligence Can Give You a Competitive Advantage

The realm of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a labyrinth of information and insights that organizations can delve into to fortify their digital frontiers while keeping a close eye on the activities of their competitors. This is achieved by harvesting a cornucopia of publicly accessible data from the World Wide Web, social media platforms and other publicly accessible records. By synergizing these various sources of information, organizations can gain an unprecedented perspective of the trends, patterns and perils in the digital domain. OSINT is not just a tool for information gathering but is a tool that provides organizations with a powerful vantage point to identify potential risks, track the movements of competitors and even uncover illicit activities. It also affords organizatio...

Nigeria’s cities are growing fast: family planning must be part of urban development plans

15Mar

By ISSGNo Comments

Africa, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations

Nigeria’s cities are growing fast: family planning must be part of urban development plans

Nigeria is rapidly urbanising, with more people living in urban areas than in rural communities. A recent World Bank estimate shows that 53% of the 213 million Nigerians live in urban areas. That’s projected to rise above 70% by 2050. Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, already has over 15.9 million people. The country’s urban growth rate is 6% and the general population growth rate is about 2.4%. Although urban areas are hubs for socioeconomic development, many large cities are unsafe and unhealthy. Unfortunately, infrastructure development and service delivery aren’t keeping pace with urban population growth in Nigeria. Millions of urban residents face enormous challenges like housing deficits, overcrowding and limited economic opportunities. Poverty, air and noise pollution, insecurity, h...

HAARP: Weather Control Is the HAARP Project a Weather Control Weapon?

25Feb

By ISSGNo Comments

Conspiracy theories, Military Technology, Topics

HAARP: Weather Control Is the HAARP Project a Weather Control Weapon?

"It isn't just conspiracy theorists who are concerned about HAARP. The European Union called the project a global concern and passed a resolution calling for more information on its health and environmental risks. Despite those concerns, officials at HAARP insist the project is nothing more sinister than a radio science research facility." -- From documentary on HAARP weather control capabilities by Canada's CBC HAARP: What is it? HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) was a little-known, yet critically important U.S. military defense project which generated quite a bit of controversy over its alleged weather control capabilities and much more. The project was shuttered by the military in 2013 after attracting large amounts of negative publicity, though HAARP-like r...

The Quiet War between Israel and Iran Iran’s Hegemonic Drive

24Feb

By ISSGNo Comments

Middle East

The Quiet War between Israel and Iran Iran’s Hegemonic Drive

by Jonathan Schanzer Middle East Quarterly A major war has been underway for a decade in the Middle East though it infrequently makes headlines. Month after month, week after week, and night after night, the Israelis have operated across the region against the Islamic Republic of Iran in what the Israeli government calls "the-war-between-wars" (or "the-campaign-between-wars").[1] The genesis of this war is clear. Since the early 1980s, Tehran has financed, armed, and trained terrorist proxies to target Israel. This includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and more recently, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq. Historically, Israel has battled many of these proxies in short but painful border wars. Tehran never paid a price. The Islamist regime preferred ...

Erdoğan’s Paramilitary Unit SADAT Peddles Conspiracies Amid Quake, NATO Expansion

24Feb

By ISSGNo Comments

Conspiracy theories

Erdoğan’s Paramilitary Unit SADAT Peddles Conspiracies Amid Quake, NATO Expansion

by Abdullah Bozkurt Nordic Monitor Private Turkish military contractor SADAT, a paramilitary unit loyal to the president of Turkey, has been peddling conspiracy theories claiming that the US might be behind deadly earthquakes that struck Turkey earlier this month and that a Western anti-Islam/anti-Turkish campaign aims to overthrow Turkey's Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Several articles written0 by Ali Coşar, a retired colonel and board member of SADAT and published by the paramilitary group's propaganda arm, ASSAM (Association of Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center), claimed the US has been threatening Turkey for some time and that it wasn't a coincidence that the quakes occurred right after the visit of a US warship to Istanbul. Coşar also maintained that the West...