Brussels Attacks: Unresolved Issues

Nothing has changed in EU's security policy since  Paris attacks occurred five months earlier. Even worse, the approach the international community has adopted with respect to security and terrorism has not addressed the roots of the problem nor endeavored to foster a productive debate.

Brussels and Paris are only two among many other places around the world that have been hit by terrorist attacks. From Yemen and Afghanistan to Tunisia, Ankara and Beirut, thousands of people have died. Before and after the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, the major problem of the EU and the United States is the lack of strong cooperation between the national secret agencies and the continuous undermining of education and religious dialogue towards decreasing the powerful effect of extremism and hatred.    

Britain’s Empire of Tax Evasion

There is a temptation, when looking at the astonishing “Panama Papers,” to start by searching for politicians from your own country who are implicated. If you are British and approach the documents in this way, you’ll find slim pickings in the information released so far.

Oil Sanctions Risk Pushing An Unstable North Korea Over The Edge

A new round of United Nations sanctions on North Korea has a lot of loopholes, and China is only enforcing those that hit at Pyongyang’s weapons-making capabilities. The rogue nation, that is once again making nuclear threats, is using its hostage population as a human shield in order to get Chinese oil and food.

In January, Pyongyang conducted its forth nuclear test. In February, it launched a long-range rocket. In early March, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly ordered the military to deploy the country’s nuclear warheads on standby.

WHY THE EU'S MARKET MATTERS TO BRITAIN

Brexit would free Britain to sign bilateral free trade agreements with the ‘BRICS’ emerging economies, the Anglosphere and Japan without having to reach a consensus with 27 other EU member-states. The rest of the world is growing faster than the EU, and it offers opportunities that would make up for any forgone trade with Europe. This means that Brexit would boost the economy in the long term, especially if you throw in some deregulation to boot.

Why don't EU leaders realise that this refugee deal with Turkey is exactly what the people traffickers want?

By any measure, the war waged by the EU against the people smugglers blamed for the refugee crisis has been an abject failure.

Refugees at a makeshift camp near the Greek village of Idomeni; thousands are stranded at the Balkan border AFP/Getty

If sabre-rattling, barbed wire, and naval flotillas and other barriers could disrupt the trade in transporting migrants, this is a war would have been won long ago.

Can Scotland Save Its Oil Industry?

The Scottish city of Aberdeen is built upon the successes of the oil and gas industry. A walk round the city centre reveals the level of investment, with every street festooned with luxury hotels, classy restaurants, and even a golf course, courtesy of Donald Trump.

Recently, however, there has been an increasing sense of uncertainty in ‘the granite city’. At the start of the year, it was reported that the price of crude had slumped to a twelve-year low with the likes of Shell warning of a 50 percent cut in profits. Across the city, oil workers have been facing redundancy from a variety of companies including Petrofac, Gulfmark, ConocoPhillips and Sparrows.

The Rotten Heart of Europe: The rampant dysfunction in Belgium puts us all in danger.

Four days after Belgian police captured suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam in Brussels –triggering a round of congratulatory news conferences in which French President François Hollande deemed the arrest “an important moment” in the fight against Islamist extremism — terror struck the Belgian capital. The Islamic State has claimed another hit on West European soil and here we go again: the gut-wrenching images of panicked people fleeing attack sites, the crushing stories of pain and loss, the displays of solidarity on social media and public buildings across the world, and, once again, the grief, shock, and panic.

Women’s work: mothers, children and the global childcare crisis

The world is facing a hidden crisis in childcare. That crisis is leaving millions of children without the support they need, with damaging consequences for their future. It is also having severe impacts on three generations of women – on mothers, grandmothers and daughters. 

There is an urgent need to solve the global care crisis to improve the lives of both women and children and to grow economies. 

Ankara bombing raises questions over Turkey’s stability

The March 13th bombing in Ankara is the third terrorist attack that hit the capital in a six-month period. The blast is a strong indicator for both the elevated terrorist threat Turkey currently faces, as well as the potential risks the country may face in the future.

In less than a month the Turkish capital was hit by two major terrorist attacks. On February 17th, a militant linked to the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) detonated a suicide car-bomb in the centre of Ankara. The blast targeted a military convoy and left 29 dead.

The end of the European Union as we know it

The EU Summit held on Monday in Brussels proved that there is a long way to go for the member-states to start perceiving the EU as a supranational organization. The refugee crisis and the struggle of Greece and its allies in Europe to make clear, in every possible way, that being part of such an organization means having both rights and obligations, did not prevail.

It has been already seven (7) months since the relocation program has been agreed between EU28, but so far implementation has been extremely weak. From 160.000 available places, only 400 refugees have been relocated, showing in the most striking way that EU has a big leadership and decision making problem. Greece has once again been on the spotlight, this time for literally geographical reasons.