An Analysis of the Makkah Defense Pact
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.
Strategic Council Online – China’s emergence as a leading global power is one of the most important geopolitical events in recent years.
Alireza Samoudi – Expert on international affairs
Strategic Council Online- Relations between Brussels and Minsk has entered into a new challenge within the past few days. Belarussian government made the Ryan Air flight, flying from Greece to Lithuania carrying Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist of Belarus government, to land at Minsk International Airport escorted by a fighter jet. European leaders have called the measure of Lukashenko as hijacking. On the other side, Lukashenko considers the imposition of sanctions by the EU as an effort to instigate his domestic opponents and to destabilize Belarus.
Alireza Samoodi, European Analyst
Strategic Council Online- Apart from his problems such as his personal expenses, confronting Corona virus or even Brexit, Boris Johnson is now facing a new problem, i.e. making effort to prevent British dismemberment.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European Affairs
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which lies undersea from Russia through the Black Sea to Germany has caused something like a “geopolitical earthquake” and concerns in the United States and some European countries. There are discussions Nord Stream 2 can provide Kremlin with a new leverage against Germany and other NATO members. The construction of this pipeline which stopped in 2019 has resumed in December 2020 in the midst of discussions as to whether the new US sanctions could once again disrupt the completion of the pipeline.
Alireza Samoodi—Expert of European issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: The issue of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline has turned into a new crisis between the United States and Russia as well as the transatlantic relations.
Alireza Samoodi-Expert of Europe issues
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: China, in the long- and mid-term, will not be the sort of partner with which NATO can easily engage as Beijing is not aligning itself with Western ideas on democracy, human rights and issues related to the East of Asia.
Alireza Samoodi, Expert of European affairs
Strategic Council Online: In the short term, given the EU’s internal crises, it cannot be hoped that Brussels-Moscow relations will improve quickly, but in the medium and long terms, the EU due to its dependence on Russian energy and the fact that part of Russia is on the European continent, is forced to settle differences with Moscow and to reduce tensions in the relations with Russia.
Alireza Samoudi – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: European convergence has declined in recent years due to the Brexit or coming to power of right-wing parties, and today the outbreak of corona and its economic implications could deepen these crises and differences.
Alireza Thamoudi – European Affairs Expert
SCFR Online – Opinion: On Friday, August 7, the heads of state of three countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan – signed a text under the title “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement.”
Strategic Council Online – Note: The initiative to revive the Hejaz Railway, beyond being a transportation project, constitutes an attempt to redefine geopolitics, the economy, and Turkey’s regional position; however, its realization appears to face significant financial, security, and institutional challenges.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Strait of Hormuz crisis is no longer merely the consequence of a military confrontation, but rather a sign of the transition from the US-centered maritime order to a new energy security structure involving the participation of emerging and influential powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Iran’s active deterrence strategy, while increasing the costs of US intervention, has increasingly exposed the hidden rifts between Washington’s interests and those of the Israeli regime.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The escalation of verbal and strategic tensions between Turkey and the Israeli regime, although not increasing the likelihood of direct war, indicates the formation of a new order in West Asian geopolitical rivalries.
Strategic Council Online – Note: Recent developments in the political geography of West Asia, from rising tensions in the Persian Gulf to missile and drone activities in the Red Sea and the recent warning by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, regarding the threat to freedom of navigation, indicate a key pattern shift; the US-Iran war has moved beyond the scope of a regional and local confrontation and has linked two vital passageways for the global economy: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
SCFR Online – Opinion: The Ukraine war was not merely a European crisis, but rather the starting point for the rearrangement of the global balance of power and a shift in the strategic behavior of great powers.
SCFR Online – Opinion: Great power competition is now pursued more in trade, currency, technology, and global supply chains than on the battlefields of military confrontation.