Earlier this month on the 10th of July, two separate hotels were attacked in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, which resulted in the death of 5 people. A subsequent security operation by Somali security forces brought the attack to an end, yet the group responsible for the attack clearly demonstrated the fragility of the Somali 
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Category Archive
Category | Backgrounder
Backgrounder - Al-Shabaab Beyond Somalia
By: Lema Ijtemaye | Thursday, July 30th, 2015Backgrounder - The Security Sector Dimension of Colombia’s Peace Talks
By: Stéphanie Le Saux-Farmer | Friday, June 5th, 2015Peace talks between Colombia’s government and the country’s largest rebel group FARC began in November 2012 with the aim of ending a conflict that has left some 220,000 dead. Thus far, agreements have been reached on land reform, guerilla’s political participation, and the illegal drugs trade. Until now, the conflict had seen significant de-escalation since
Backgrounder – Factors behind South Sudan’s Persistent Insecurity
By: Margarita Yakovenko | Wednesday, April 29th, 2015IGAD-led peace talks were held in March, without any resolution to the crisis. However, even if a peace deal was struck, it is unlikely that it would have succeeded in establishing enduring peace. Although the civil war that began in December 2013 is largely a product of a political/military power struggle, the general insecurity in
Backgrounder – The Emergence of the Islamic State
By: Matthew Morgan | Friday, August 22nd, 2014The rapid advance in June of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Shām (ISIS) across northern Iraq, capturing its second largest city, Mosul and threatening to advance on Baghdad, stunned global security experts and policy makers alike. The collapse and retreat of the Iraqi army demonstrates, more than anything, the abject failure of American policy
Backgrounder – Turmoil in Eastern Ukraine
By: Chelsea Winn | Friday, August 8th, 2014The downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 serves as a stark reminder that the crisis in Ukraine has not been resolved, despite the disappearance of the conflict from the mainstream media’s headlines in the weeks prior to the incident.
Backgrounder – Boko Haram and Political Instability in Nigeria
By: Lema Ijtemaye | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014Boko Haram’s activities have been escalating steadily in Nigeria; the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Borno earlier this year being the most recent indicator of the group’s growing threat to Nigeria’s political stability. Indeed, the group is viewed by many experts as a direct challenge the state’s corrupt nature and its general inability to address
Backgrounder – Political and Economic Reforms in Burma/Myanmar
By: Lema Ijtemaye | Wednesday, May 28th, 2014Although China dominated much of the discussion at the 2014 ASEAN Summit, the gathering of the Southeast Asian nations in Myanmar provided the host country an opportunity to showcase the progress it has made since the implementation of key political and economic reforms. Despite these efforts, the country’s political system continues to be fragile and
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