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A New Formula in the Battle for Fallujah | the Washington Institute
MENU Policy Analysis / Articles & Op-Eds A New Formula in the Battle for Fallujah by Michael Knights May 25, 2016 Also available in Arabic ABOUT THE AUTHORS Michael Knights Michael Knights is the Boston-based Jill and Jay Bernstein Fellow of The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq, Iran, and the Persian Gulf states. Articles & Testimony The campaign is Iraq's latest attempt to push militia and coalition forces into a single battlespace, and lessons from past efforts have seemingly improved their tactics. n May 22, the Iraqi government announced the opening of the long-awaited battle of Fallujah, the city only O 30 miles west of Baghdad that has been fully under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group for the past 29 months. Fallujah was a critical hub for al-Qaeda in Iraq and later ISIL in the decade before ISIL's January 2014 takeover. On the one hand it may seem surprising that Fallujah has not been liberated sooner -- after all, it has been the ISIL- controlled city closest to Baghdad for more than two years. The initial reason was that there was always something more urgent to do with Iraq's security forces. In January 2014, the Iraqi security forces were focused on preventing an ISIL takeover of Ramadi next door. The effort to retake Fallujah was judged to require detailed planning, and a hasty counterattack seemed like a pointless risk. In retrospect it may have been worth an early attempt to break up ISIL's control of the city while it was still incomplete. -
Foreign Military Studies Office
community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/fmso/ Foreign Military Studies Office Volume 8 Issue #5 OEWATCH May 2018 FOREIGN NEWS & PERSPECTIVES OF THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT CHINA’S REACH MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA LATIN AMERICA 3 Tension between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea 24 Colombia and Brazil Look for Solutions to Deal with 44 China Holds Naval Review in the South China Sea 4 Disputes over Natural Gas Exploration in the Eastern Massive Venezuelan Migration 45 China’s Carrier Aviation Unit Improves Training Mediterranean 25 Brazil’s Federal Government Open Border Policy 46 Relocation in Southern Xinjiang: China Expands the Program 6 Iran and Russia Compete for Influence in Syria Challenges Frontier States 47 Perspectives on the Future of Marawi 8 “Turkey-Russia Rapprochement” Continues 26 Colombian-Venezuelan Border Ills 48 Indonesia Brings Terrorists and Victims Together 9 Turkish Defense Companies Reach Agreements with 27 Bolivarians Gain Influence over Colombian Resources 49 Thailand and Malaysia Build Border Wall Qatar’s Armed Forces 29 Venezuelan Elections Worth Anything? 10 A New Striking Power for the Turkish Armed Forces 30 Regarding the Colombian Elections 11 Will Iran Interfere in Kashmir? 31 Archbishop of Bogotá Confesses Left CAUCASUS, CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA 12 Rouhani Speaks about the Internet 31 Peruvian President Resigns, Replaced 50 India’s Red Line for China 13 Why Did the Mayor of Tehran Resign? 32 Brazilians Send Former President to Jail 51 The Future of Indian-Russian Security Cooperation 14 Former Governor: ISIS May -
Media Capture with Chinese Characteristics
JOU0010.1177/1464884917724632JournalismBelair-Gagnon et al. 724632research-article2017 Article Journalism 1 –17 Media capture with Chinese © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: characteristics: Changing sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917724632DOI: 10.1177/1464884917724632 patterns in Hong Kong’s journals.sagepub.com/home/jou news media system Nicholas Frisch Yale University, USA Valerie Belair-Gagnon University of Minnesota, USA Colin Agur University of Minnesota, USA Abstract In the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, a former British territory in southern China returned to the People’s Republic as a semi-autonomous enclave in 1997, media capture has distinct characteristics. On one hand, Hong Kong offers a case of media capture in an uncensored media sector and open market economy similar to those of Western industrialized democracies. Yet Hong Kong’s comparatively small size, close proximity, and broad economic exposure to the authoritarian markets and politics of neighboring Mainland China, which practices strict censorship, place unique pressures on Hong Kong’s nominally free press. Building on the literature on media and politics in Hong Kong post-handover and drawing on interviews with journalists in Hong Kong, this article examines the dynamics of media capture in Hong Kong. It highlights how corporate-owned legacy media outlets are increasingly deferential to the Beijing government’s news agenda, while social media is fostering alternative spaces for more skeptical and aggressive voices. This article develops a scholarly vocabulary to describe media capture from the perspective of local journalists and from the academic literature on media and power in Hong Kong and China since 1997. -
The Politics of Security in Ninewa: Preventing an ISIS Resurgence in Northern Iraq
The Politics of Security in Ninewa: Preventing an ISIS Resurgence in Northern Iraq Julie Ahn—Maeve Campbell—Pete Knoetgen Client: Office of Iraq Affairs, U.S. Department of State Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Advisor: Meghan O’Sullivan Policy Analysis Exercise Seminar Leader: Matthew Bunn May 7, 2018 This Policy Analysis Exercise reflects the views of the authors and should not be viewed as representing the views of the US Government, nor those of Harvard University or any of its faculty. Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to the many people who helped us throughout the development, research, and drafting of this report. Our field work in Iraq would not have been possible without the help of Sherzad Khidhir. His willingness to connect us with in-country stakeholders significantly contributed to the breadth of our interviews. Those interviews were made possible by our fantastic translators, Lezan, Ehsan, and Younis, who ensured that we could capture critical information and the nuance of discussions. We also greatly appreciated the willingness of U.S. State Department officials, the soldiers of Operation Inherent Resolve, and our many other interview participants to provide us with their time and insights. Thanks to their assistance, we were able to gain a better grasp of this immensely complex topic. Throughout our research, we benefitted from consultations with numerous Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) faculty, as well as with individuals from the larger Harvard community. We would especially like to thank Harvard Business School Professor Kristin Fabbe and Razzaq al-Saiedi from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative who both provided critical support to our project. -
RECUEIL DES ACTES ADMINISTRATIFS Edition N° 18 Du 30 Mars 2018
PREFET DE MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE RECUEIL DES ACTES ADMINISTRATIFS Edition n° 18 du 30 mars 2018 Les actes dans leur intégralité peuvent être consultés à la préfecture ou auprès des services concernés. Le recueil peut aussi être consulté : sur le site Internet des services de l'État en Meurthe-et-Moselle : www.meurthe-et-moselle.gouv.fr aux guichets d'accueil de la préfecture et des sous-préfectures, pendant deux mois à partir du 30 mars 2018 RECUEIL N° 18 603 30 MARS 2018 S O M M A I R E ARRETES, DECISIONS, CIRCULAIRES...............................................................................................................................................................605 PREFECTURE DE MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE............................................................................................................................................................................................605 CABINET DU PREFET................................................................................................................................................................................................................................605 DIRECTION DES SECURITES............................................................................................................................................................................................................605 Bureau des polices administratives...................................................................................................................................................................................................605 -
Shabaab Weekly Insite Nov 12-24
4938 Hampden Lane, Suite 156 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-841-7740 [email protected] Weekly inSITE on the Shabaab al- Mujahideen Movement in Somalia Thursday, November 12 - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 The SITE Intelligence Group’s Weekly inSITE reports provide periodical macro-analyses of extremist groups based on official communiques, online chatter, media reports, and existing SITE research. Key Points - The Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement continued to target AMISOM and Somali troops in the southernmost regions of Somalia, with clashes also extending farther north into central Somalia as well as into Kenya. - Confrontations continue between Shabaab, which remains loyal to al-Qaeda (AQ), and Islamic State (IS) supporters, both in the ranks and defected to IS. - Shabaab reportedly took over the Kismayo military academy on Nov. 13 and killed 25 Somali soldiers. - Shabaab retook the city Fido from Burundi AMISOM troops on Nov. 12. - Shabaab killed the leader of a pro-IS Shabaab faction in an ambush on Nov. 22. - According to chatter on Twitter, drone strikes killed a high-ranking Shabaab leader, Sheikh Mohamed Abdalla, and at least 8 militants on Nov. 22. - A Shabaab media group released a statement of approval in response to the Paris attacks on Nov. 13. - Shabaab-affiliated users on Twitter reacted in outrage to an interview in the latest issue of the Islamic State's (IS) Dabiq magazine, in which Shabaab was criticized for not fully exercising a ban on Qat. - A Somali-focused jihadi media group released a report on Shabaab’s military activities on Nov. 13-14, which most prominently featured the taking of the Kismayo military academy and retaking of the city Fido. -
Kenya-Somalia Maritime Row: a Colonial Dispute to Secure Western Masters' Interests
F Kenya-Somalia Maritime Row: A Colonial Dispute to Secure Western Masters' Interests News: A row over a maritime territorial area in the Indian Ocean between Kenya and Somalia has escalated after Nairobi decided to cut diplomatic relations with Mogadishu over a claim that the latter had auctioned oil blocks located in a disputed border area. At the centre of the dispute is a narrow triangle on the Indian Ocean measuring 62,000 square miles. (standardmedia.co.ke) Comment: Somalia's Federal Government based in Mogadishu and led by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmajo" is a pro-US regime. Since Farmajo came to power on 16 February 2017, his regime has been facing hostility from pro-UK regional states of Somalia's Federal member states led by Ahmed Mohamed Islam "Sheikh Ahmed Madobe" who is the leader/president of Jubaland State of Somalia whose capital is Kismayo. The pro-UK regional leaders organized their first meeting on October 2017 and their second meeting on September 2018 which was attended by presidents — Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas (Puntland), Ahmed Duale Gelle (Galmudug), Mohamed Abdi Ware (Hirshabelle), Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden (South West State) and Sheikh Ahmed Madobe of Jubaland, who hosted the meeting. The common sentiments in both the meetings the leaders called for the suspension of co-operation between regional states and the centre (Mogadishu) on the pretext that President Farmajo’s inability to fight Al Shabaab and his continued interference in the internal affairs of the federal states. Sheikh Ahmed Madobe was the governor of Kismayo from 2006 under the Islamic Union Courts (ICU) before the pro-US Ethiopian invasion disbanded ICU. -
In Hong Kong the Political Economy of the Asia Pacific
The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific Fujio Mizuoka Contrived Laissez- Faireism The Politico-Economic Structure of British Colonialism in Hong Kong The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific Series editor Vinod K. Aggarwal More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7840 Fujio Mizuoka Contrived Laissez-Faireism The Politico-Economic Structure of British Colonialism in Hong Kong Fujio Mizuoka Professor Emeritus Hitotsubashi University Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan ISSN 1866-6507 ISSN 1866-6515 (electronic) The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific ISBN 978-3-319-69792-5 ISBN 978-3-319-69793-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69793-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017956132 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. -
Somalia Terror Threat
THECHRISTOPHER TERROR February 12, THREAT FROM THE TERROR THREAT FROM SOMALIA THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF AL SHABAAB CHRISTOPHER HARNISCH APPENDICES AND MAPS BY KATHERINE ZIMMERMAN FEBRUARY 12, 2010 A REPORT BY THE CRITICAL THREATS PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE THE TERROR THREAT FROM SOMALIA CHRISTOPHER HARNISCH February 12, 2010 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 IMPORTANT GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS IN SOMALIA 3 NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS 4 INTRODUCTION 8 ORIGINS OF AL SHABAAB 10 GAINING CONTROL, GOVERNING, AND MAINTAINING CONTROL 14 AL SHABAAB’S RELATIONSHIP WITH AL QAEDA, THE GLOBAL JIHAD MOVEMENT, AND ITS GLOBAL IDEOLOGY 19 INTERNATIONAL RECRUITING AND ITS IMPACT 29 AL SHABAAB’S INTERNATIONAL THREATS 33 THREAT ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSION 35 APPENDIX A: TIMELINE OF MAJOR SECURITY EVENTS IN SOMALIA 37 APPENDIX B: MAJOR SUICIDE ATTACKS AND ASSASSINATIONS CLAIMED BY OR ATTRIBUTED TO AL SHABAAB 47 NOTES 51 Maps MAP OF THE HORN OF AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST 5 POLITICAL MAP OF SOMALIA 6 MAP OF ISLAMIST-CONTROLLED AND INFLUENCED AREAS IN SOMALIA 7 www.criticalthreats.org THE TERROR THREAT FROM SOMALIA CHRISTOPHER HARNISCH February 12, 2010 Executive Summary hree hundred people nearly died in the skies of and assassinations. Al Shabaab’s primary objectives at TMichigan on Christmas Day, 2009 when a Niger- the time of the Ethiopian invasion appeared to be ian terrorist attempted to blow up a plane destined geographically limited to Somalia, and perhaps the for Detroit. The terrorist was an operative of an al Horn of Africa. The group’s rhetoric and behavior, Qaeda franchise based in Yemen called al Qaeda in however, have shifted over the past two years reflect- the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). -
Street Protests and Air Pollution in Hong Kong
Street protests and air pollution in Hong Kong Brimblecombe, Peter Published in: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Published: 01/05/2020 Document Version: Final Published version, also known as Publisher’s PDF, Publisher’s Final version or Version of Record License: CC BY Publication record in CityU Scholars: Go to record Published version (DOI): 10.1007/s10661-020-8243-0 Publication details: Brimblecombe, P. (2020). Street protests and air pollution in Hong Kong. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 192(5), [295]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-8243-0 Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on CityU Scholars is the Post-print version (also known as Accepted Author Manuscript, Peer-reviewed or Author Final version), it may differ from the Final Published version. When citing, ensure that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination and other details. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the CityU Scholars portal is retained by the author(s) and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. Publisher permission Permission for previously published items are in accordance with publisher's copyright policies sourced from the SHERPA RoMEO database. Links to full text versions (either Published or Post-print) are only available if corresponding publishers allow open access. Take down policy Contact [email protected] if you believe that this document breaches copyright and provide us with details. -
Can We Use Big Data to Secure a Better Future?
Inter national Journal of Business & Cyber Security (IJBCS) Vol. 1 Issue 1 July 2016 The Majority Report - Can we use big data to secure a better future? VIVIEN P.S. CHAN K.P. CHOW The University of Hong Kong Abstract With the widely adopted use of social media, it now becomes a common platform for c alling supporters for civil unrest events. Despite the noble aims of these civil unrest events, sometimes these events might turn violent and disturb the daily lives of the general public. This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework regarding the s tudy of using online social media data to predict offline civil unrest events. We Keywords propose to use time - series metrics as the prediction attributes instead of analyzing Social Media message contentsbecause the message contents on social media are usually noisy, Platform, informal and not so easy to interpret. In the case of a data set containing both civil Predictive unrest event dates and normal dates, we found that it contains many more samples Modeling, from the normal dates class than from the civil unrest event dates class. Thus, Civil Unrest creating an im balanced class problem. We showed using accuracy as the performance metrics could be misleading as civil unrest events were the minority class. Thus, we suggest to use additional tactics to handle the imbalanced class prediction problem. We propose to u se a combination of oversampling the minority class and using feature selection techniques to tackle the imbalanced class problem. The current resultsdemonstrate that use of time - series metrics to predict civil unrest events is a possible solution to the problems of handling the noise and unstructured format of social media data contents in the process of analysis and predictions. -
A Modest Rejoinder from a Historian Peter Jones
Special Issue — Edited by I. Pardo and G. B. Prato Urbanities, Vol. 9 · Supplement 2 · April 2019 On Legitimacy: Multidisciplinary Reflections © 2019 Urbanities A Modest Rejoinder from a Historian Peter Jones (University of Leicester, U.K.) [email protected] It is a pleasure to participate in this debate on legitimacy. I cannot match the range of learning and scholarship that has gone into the fascinating work edited by Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato (2019); and, therefore, I have concentrated on Giuliana Prato’s illuminating chapter ‘On the Legitimacy of Democratic Representation: Two case studies from Europe’ (2019), which takes a ‘turning point’ in European history: the post-1989 collapse of the Soviet Union and its client state empire in Eastern Europe. The collapse represented a crisis of legitimacy not only of the Soviet Empire as a political entity but also a crisis for the revolutionary ideology of Marxism and the various Communist Parties of Western Europe and, especially, in Italy. We are probably familiar with Francis Fukuyama’s, The End of History and the Last Man (1992) which suggested that the fall of the Berlin Wall marked a final stage in the evolution of liberal democracy and the ‘end point of mankind’s [sic] ideological evolution’ (see also Fukuyama (1989). Such optimism now seems hollow as even Western European states struggle to eliminate corruption and electorates have in some states turned to populist-nationalist political programmes. In this sense, however, Giuliana Prato’s fieldwork illustrates that the processes of change are more complex and drawn-out than the political headlines of the journalist and even sometimes of historians and political scientists.