Recent events suggest that the UAE is trying to destabilize Somalia and throw it back into a multisided security crisis in order to trap Qatar’s Turkish ally in a quagmire and offset the Great Power rise of Egypt’s Ethiopian rival. Most Things Come In Threes Somalia has been shaken by three interconnected developments over the…
Until very recently, the dusty African territory of Djibouti was best known to the wider world for its inhabitants’ habit of chewing khat. Each day, as the heat of the afternoon mounts, the men of Djibouti gather in sociable groups, wad a few leaves of the East African shrub Catha edulis into their cheeks, and…
The delicate balance of power in the Horn of Africa might soon be broken by the developing situation inside of Djibouti surrounding the future ownership of its main port, with the possible American-Emirati reaction to this potentially serving as a trigger for militarily activating the complex transregional alliance system that’s formed in this part of…
For decades, exploitative neo-imperialist geo-political military and economic (mis)adventures have tarnished generations throughout much of the Middle East. From the continued suppression of the Palestinians, to the Petro-politics of the Persian Gulf, to regime change missions throughout historic Mesopotamia, the Levant and Maghreb, the Middle East has been the 20th century’s geo-political/geo-economic prize that the…
The ugly row over whether President Trump disrespected the young widow of a fallen American soldier has overshadowed a bigger issue. That is, the increasing number of US military operations across the African continent. Two weeks ago, Sgt La David Johnson (25) was killed along with three other US special forces troops when Islamist militants ambushed…
In the West, no one, especially not in the US, pays any attention to the fact that a net of about 800 American military bases has been cast over every country and continent on earth. There are 172 of them in Germany alone, 113 in Japan, 83 right next door in South Korea, and still…
