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A focal point of Kurdish claims within Iraq’s Disputed Territories, Zummar is now under the firm control of Kurdish forces, with local Arab and Kurdish tribal forces providing additional security support to Kurdish forces; return of Arabs to Zummar has been fraught with controversy.…

Wehrmachtsdevotionalien, entwürdigende Ausbildungspraktiken, sexuelle Belästigung, Demütigungen und der Fall um Franco A – 2017 häufen sich die Vorwürfe gegenüber der Bundeswehr. Das Verteidigungsministerium zieht die personellen und organisatorischen Konsequenzen: Generale werden entlassen, der…

This literature review is part of a larger study on local, hybrid, and sub-state security forces in Iraq (LHSFs). Please see the main page for more further reports and research summaries about individual field research sites. Regional or community forces, militias, and other forms of local security…

Local Christian and Shabak forces vie to police this decimated ghost town and surrounding Christian areas, a part of the larger Baghdad versus Kurdish competition and demographic reshaping of the Ninewa Plains.…

A test of the Disputed Territories boundary line, this predominantly Sunni Arab area in Tal Afar district has flipped to Kurdish control after ISIL’s ouster, and local tribal forces have formed units under KDP Peshmerga.…

US-supported and -trained Sunni tribal PMF have played a larger role in this relatively stable Sunni area south of Mosul, but tribal revenge attacks, Shi’a PMF on the outskirts, and a recent ISIL takeover of a liberated town illustrate the uneven control and stability even in safe and politically…

Für ein Vierteljahrhundert nach dem Fall der Berliner Mauer sahen sich Deutschland und Europa als Hort der liberalen Demokratie, die auch global auf dem Siegeszug war. Autoritäre Regierungsmodelle würden sich bald auf dem Müllhaufen der Geschichte wiederfinden. Dabei sollte westliche…

“Europe,” Emmanuel Macron said last month, “isn’t a supermarket.” The French president was referring to the recent illiberal actions of some central and eastern European states, which he argued had come to rely on the bloc to “dispens[e] credit” in the form of budgetary assistance “without…

Ladies and gentlemen, we need you! We need your critical questions, your experience, your ideas and your suggestions. We should talk openly about what we are already doing well, and how we can become even better and more efficient. With these remarks at an event on 5 July 2016, then-Foreign Minister…

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has identified one overarching priority for his work: the prevention of human suffering. Specifically, Guterres envisions that the concept of prevention, and the mechanisms it entails, will be able to cut across and strengthen the UN’s three pillars: peace and…

Germans are worried about the future of their partnership with the United States and about their new role on the world scene. Throughout much of Europe, leaders have lost confidence that the US presidency under Donald Trump will make the right decisions in international affairs, and Germany is no…

Meine Damen und Herren, wir brauchen Sie! Ihre kritischen Fragen. Ihre Erfahrungen, Ihre Einwürfe und Ihre Anregungen. Wir wollen offen diskutieren, wo wir bereits gut arbeiten und wo und wie wir noch besser und effizienter werden können. Mit diesen Worten eröffnete der damalige Außenminister Frank-…

Transatlantic Digital Debates Fellows Discuss the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz On June 30, the German Bundestag passed the network enforcement law (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, or NetzDG), requiring that social media companies with more than 2 million registered German users delete unlawful content,…

U.S. tech firms have always found the European market a tricky one to navigate. They struggled with a public backlash following Edward Snowden’s disclosures and have had to cope with what they perceive to be awkward court decisions, like the right to be forgotten. Now, they face an entirely new…

A band of Neo-Nazi officers allegedly conspiring to commit a false-flag terrorist attack was only the most bizarre of the scandals that has rattled Germany’s military in the past year. Other allegations include sadistic practices in training, sexual harassment, and revelations about World War II…

On Friday, the German parliament will pass the gloriously named and woefully misguided Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, or “network enforcement law,” to combat hate speech on social media platforms. Its parliamentary godfathers simply call it the “Facebook law” and commend it as “epochal” and…

On Tuesday, U.S. forces shot down an armed Iranian drone in southern Syria, a few days after a similarly justified strike on a Syrian aircraft that dropped a bomb near a U.S. training outpost. Combined with the U.S. decision to ramp up support to Syrian Kurds seeking to retake Raqqa, these actions…

Here, 2017 is shaping up to be an unexpectedly good year for those invested in the European project. The real existing populism of Trump and the disastrous British management of Brexit have had a deterrent effect on electorates. The political center is re-energized and has even taken to the streets…