The hidden heist – offshore plunder is hurting Africa

Forget the UK’s phoney political war over the offshore fund created by Prime Minister David Cameron’s late father. This is a Panama Papers sideshow that is diverting attention from a heist that is siphoning billions of dollars out of the world’s poorest countries in Africa, reinforcing poverty, undermining growth and facilitating corruption on an industrial scale.

Over the past fifteen years, Africa’s vast natural resource wealth has acted as a magnet for foreign investment. Much of that investment has been channelled through offshore centres, with the British Virgin Islands (BVI) the circuit of choice. Fortunes have been made. Elites have been enriched. But the minerals boom has done little to improve the lives of ordinary people.

OPEC Is Dead, What’s Next?

OPEC is dead, Rosneft’s head Igor Sechin has told Reuters. In a fine example of stating the obvious – at least to those who have been keeping an eye on the energy industry – and putting it in context, the chief of Russia’s largest oil company welcomed an era where the oil market will be driven by “finance, technology and regulation.”

Forget Sykes-Picot. It’s the Treaty of Sèvres That Explains the Modern Middle East.

Ninety-five years ago today, European diplomats gathered at a porcelain factory in the Paris suburb of Sèvres and signed a treaty to remake the Middle East from the ashes of the Ottoman empire. The plan collapsed so quickly we barely remember it anymore, but the short-lived Treaty of Sèvres, no less than the endlessly discussed Sykes-Picotagreement, had consequences that can still be seen today. We might do well to consider a few of them as the anniversary of this forgotten treaty quietly passes by.

Syrian War Update: Risks Growing for Southern Turkey

A recent bombing in Gaziantep, Turkey underscores the current elevated threat posed by the Islamic State to the nation’s southern border provinces. Security is unlikely to improve given the ongoing conflict in the northern Aleppo region.

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Turkey has increasingly been entangled in the devastating war of its southern neighbor. Ankara is actively supporting several insurgent factions opposed to the Syrian government as well as to Kurdish forces and other radical Islamist militants. Since July 2015, the conflict became an integral part of Turkey’s internal security environment as Islamic State militants carried out several high-profile attacks in Suruc, Ankara, and Istanbul.

Προβλήματα στην Τουρκία μετά την έξοδο Davutoglu

Η ξαφνική αποχώρηση του Τούρκου πρωθυπουργού Ahmet Davutoglu από τους διαδρόμους της εξουσίας μπορεί να μην σηματοδοτεί αναγκαστικά το τέλος της συμφωνίας με την Ευρώπη για το προσφυγικό –αλλά σίγουρα αυξάνει το διακύβευμα για την Ευρώπη στις σχέσεις της με την Άγκυρα.

Η απόφαση του Davutoglu να αφήσει την θέση του ως αποτέλεσμα μιας παρασκηνιακής διαμάχης με τον Τούρκο πρόεδρο Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ήρθε την ίδια ημέρα με τη σύσταση της Κομισιόν να χορηγηθεί η δυνατότητα ταξιδιών χωρίς βίζα για τους Τούρκους πολίτες. Υπό φυσιολογικές συνθήκες, αυτό θα είχε χαιρετιστεί ως μια ιστορική ημέρα από τα τουρκικά ΜΜΕ, με ένα μεγάλο μέρος της να πιστώνεται στον ίδιο τον Davutoglu, ο οποίος ηγήθηκε των επίπονων διαπραγματεύσεων με τις Βρυξέλλες τον Μάρτιο.