Such US drone strikes have been relatively common in Syria’s Islamist opposition-held northwest in recent years, but Monday’s targeted killing followed a lull over recent months. Agence France-Presse cited the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying the strike killed two jihadi officials, one of Tunisian and the other of either...
Category: Blog
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After Afghanistan: Time for Realist Internationalism
A large part of this disagreement also lies in our differing attitudes towards the course of US and allied foreign and security policy over the past generation. The ‘breakthrough moment for the restraint school’ was most certainly not the rise of Trump, as Ikenberry and Deudney allege. It was the disasters that followed the...
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Russia Behind Litvinenko Murder, European Court Rules
Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became a British citizen, was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London in 2006. A UK public inquiry conducted 10 years later concluded that the killing was “probably approved” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has always denied any involvement in his murder. Source: Russia behind Litvinenko murder, rules...
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U.S. Controls on Experiments With Supercharged Pathogens Have Been Undercut Amid Lab-Leak Concerns
From the reliable Washington Post: A decade ago, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health used ferrets to engineer a highly lethal flu virus. The purpose of the research — known as “gain of function” — was to better understand how viruses evolve and to help devise medicines to combat the potential disease threats.It...
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Afghanistan Is Only the Latest US War to Be Driven by Deceit and Delusion
From military analyst Gordon Adams: An initial mission intended to remove the Taliban and close the al-Qaida training camps succeeded, though Osama bin Laden slipped away for another 10 years. But hubris kept the U.S. from stopping there.The mission expanded: create a modern democracy, a modern society and, above all, a modern military in...