Since the 2000s, China and India's needs for hydrocarbons, coming on top of those of older industrialized Asian countries (Japan and South Korea), have considerably strengthened customer-supplier links between Asia in general and the Persian Gulf, in the energy field.

Over the last ten years, Kuwait's power consumption has doubled. This rising need for electricity has been mainly driven by the fast population growth rate, the increasing need for desalinated water, accounting for 93% of water consumption, and the economic development of the country.

On Tuesday 10 April 2012, Osama bin Laden was finally replaced on the FBI’s most wanted list by a fugitive schoolteacher accused of possessing child pornography. As the United States’ perception of threat has shifted, so too has the broader national security discourse. The prominent al-Qaeda analyst Peter Bergen observed that the terrorist group which launched the 9/11 attacks is now more or less out of business. He argued, too, that it is time to declare al-Qaeda defeated and “move on to focus on the essential challenges now facing America”: fixing the country’s economy, containing a rising China, managing the rogue regime in North Korea, and continuing to delay Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

First of all, shale oil is starting to take the same dimension as shale gas in the US. Already 51% of US production comes presently from unconventional gas (shale, tight gas and coal-bed methane), and outlooks predict that the US will produce more gas than Russia by 2020. Oil imports have already diminished from 60 to 45%. As domestic unconventional oil production tends to increase, - it is now around 15% - imports will probably decline even more.

As a number of provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act are entering into force, five years after the beginnings of the financial crisis, Professor Herman Schwartz explains how the U.S. banking community will continue to hurt the interests of the American economy and political system.

In the heat of the public discussion on the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that he has not yet decided whether to attack Iran. At the same time, partly in response to opponents of such an attack, he made it clear that the risk of harm to the home front at this point, when Iran still does not have nuclear weapons, is dwarfed by the risks involved in an attack on Israel after Iran has gone nuclear.

The futuristic green city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates or the latest announcements of Saudi Arabia which might now well become the new Eldorado for solar energy companies have a clear marketing varnish. But if they are showcases of green ambitions, they nonetheless reflect the situation the Gulf States face today driven by the development of heavy industry and petrochemicals but first and foremost by the rapid population growth (around 2% for Saudi Arabia and 3% for Kuwait; Qatar and the Emirates have higher population growth rate due to immigrants).

A central piece of national security during two centuries and an essential link between the military and the people, the French reserve forces have considerably decreased over the last decades.

Nuclear fission was discovered in the late 1930s. The first application went towards military use, and gradually expanded to civil use such as power generation. Power generation gained importance in two stages: firstly, to shift away from oil in power generation after the oil shocks in the 1970s, and second, to arrest climate change due to CO2-free nature of nuclear power more recently. This typically applies to Japan, which has become the world third largest in nuclear power generation. However, nuclear power is violent by nature, and major accidents of nuclear power plants shook the public confidence in nuclear safety. Japan has been put into such situation in a most radical way due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011.

The dynamics of Muslim-Copt relations and how they are managed by the Church and the State are part and parcel of Egypt’s transition post-Mubarak because they underlie the discussions concerning Egypt’s future as a civil State. The treatment of Copts and other religious communities under a new government will be a key indicator of the maturity of Egypt’s democratic transition.

After its rapid military victory over the Taliban, the international community underestimated the resources, time and work that would be required enforce to Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Afghanistan. Even though the Afghan population was supportive of the coalition’s efforts at first, the light footprint approach, fostered by the Europeans, failed to provide with satisfying results as the insurgency made its way through popular frustration.

RAMSES (Le Rapport annuel mondial sur le système économique et les stratégies), is a yearly publication that provides in-depth reviews and prospective analysis on current events, providing readers with indispensable insights and perspectives for understanding contemporary geopolitics on the global scale. Edited by Thierry de Montbrial and Philippe Moreau Defarges, RAMSES relies on the expertise of Ifri’s research team and its network of associates.

The interplay of the foreign, domestic and military dimensions of Russia's Arctic policy is characterized by peculiar incompatibilities. The position of power secured by the military superiority and ambitious modernization of strategic forces is supposed to grant Moscow strong influence and tangible advantages in the Arctic relations.

This series of policy papers, published by Ifri and the Canon Institute for Global Studies, provides a Japanese perspective on the causes, the mechanisms and the consequences of the global economic crisis, as well as the measures implemented by the States to cope with it.

The multifaceted crisis in Mali, which has effectively led to state collapse and split the country in two, has drawn international attention to Algeria’s role in the stability of the Sahel. One might expect Algeria, as the region’s preeminent military power, and one that has sought to position itself as a leader in counter-terrorism, to lead the international response to the growing chaos along its volatile southern border.

Mormonism has been making headlines ever since Mitt Romney declared his candidacy to the White House. This 19th century American-born religion puts forth a set of values that is both original and strong. A better understanding of these values is necessary as Mormonism develops both inside and outside the United States. 

Algeria has emerged as something of an “exception” across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and while the recent elections have been marred by widespread allegations of fraud, the results have effectively consolidated the regime’s grip on power thus ensuring its complete monopoly over the country’s reform process.

Created on the 10^th July 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244, UNMIK was responsible for restructuring the institutions of a country devastated by war and establishing democratic governance. The security of people and goods and the existence of a legal system trusted by the population were two crucial prerequisites to the state-building process.

Campaign funding in the U.S. follows a number of rules that are complex and often bypassed. These rules have been upset by recent judicial decisions, and the 2012 electoral campaign has seen the rise of unlimited donations. The impact on the democratic process is potentially important and prospects for a short-term remedy remain limited.

The Intouchables tells the story of a young Senegalese immigrant named Driss, who has been hired to be the caretaker of Philippe, a rich tetraplegic. The feel-good comedy has been a smashing success in France and across the world, grossing over $350m worldwide. While reviews of the film both in France and abroad have been mostly positive, there is a contingent of American critics that thinks that The Intouchables highlights racial stereotypes.

Italy is currently hit by an unprecedented economic, political and social crisis. This changing and uncertain environment affects more than ever the ability to define an energy strategy, which has never really benefitted from a clear vision and a solid organization. Since the 1987 referendum, which acknowledged the end of the nuclear program, the Italian energy policy has been elaborated through a juxtaposition of decrees and rules. Several laws have been approved either to comply with the European regulation or to correct former policies. These have contributed to the creation of a highly intricate regulation puzzle, only accessible to the most voluntary ones or the better equipped. The “success” of renewables subsidies has compromised the profitability of thermal power stations and increased the energy bills of retail consumers.

The Web has seen a spectacular development in Russia, opening an intermediary political space through which protesters against the regime have been able to coalesce, as shown by the events in late 2011 and early 2012. 

The Asian “supercomplex” has taken shape: this is evident within the cross-membership model to Asian intergovernmental organizations and through the appearance of political counterweights to China, particularly in India.

Even if no independent cyberwar has ever taken place, “cyberspace” has nonetheless become an important dimension of current conflicts.

Southeast Asia experienced its own political upheavals well before the Arab revolts. Nevertheless, the wave of popular uprisings that shook the Middle-East and North Africa region goes far beyond the region’s boundaries, and Southeast Asia is no exception to the global crisis of confidence towards governments.

While the actual price of carbon emissions in the EU market is at the extremely low level of €6 per tonne, it is crucial to track European emission trends and to compare them with the commitments of the EU-15 under the Kyoto Protocol and the targets set by the EU-27 for 2020.

Launcher policy will be one of the major issues discussed at the upcoming ESA Council at Ministerial Level. Europe is at the crossroads, as it needs to find the adequate balance between political necessities (ensuring an autonomous access to space) and economic realities (reducing costs).

This series of policy papers, published by Ifri and the Canon Institute for Global Studies, provides a Japanese perspective on the causes, the mechanisms and the consequences of the global economic crisis, as well as the measures implemented by the States to cope with it.

The Russian Federation is shaping its religious diplomacy (i.e., in brief, the use of the religious factor in foreign policy) and exercises it with a growing efficiency. This is, to a certain degree, a consequence of processes taking place in Russia, namely, first and foremost, the solving of the crisis of identity and values, and, closely connected with this, the renaissance of religion in Russian political and social life.

A quick look at the news dealing with the Syrian uprising the last year shows a slow progression from protests and civil resistance towards violence. The Obama Administration’s policy dealing with what many have called “slow motion revolution” has evolved in fits and starts, with mixed episodes of confusion, assertiveness, denial and drift.

Airborne operations draw their strategic importance from the scale and magnitude they provide to air-land operations. Yet, their concept of employment, shaped by their historical legacy may seem unfit to contemporary requirements - especially regarding their vulnerability during dropping and penetration phases when troops are isolated and highly dependent on external support.

This series of policy papers, published by Ifri and the Canon Institute for Global Studies, provides a Japanese perspective on the causes, the mechanisms and the consequences of the global economic crisis, as well as the measures implemented by the States to cope with it.

By the end of 2004, low migration flow regulation contributed to a high rate of irregularity and hampered adaptation of foreign labor supplies to the demands of the Spanish labor market, contributing therewith to an increase in irregular workers. The remarkable change came with the change of government in March 2004 and with the approval of the Royal Decree 2393/2004 which established a complex system for managing immigration and was accompanied by the sixth and final regularization process, driven by government, business, and employer organizations in the framework of the Social Dialogue.

Since the early twenty-first century, the international nonproliferation landscape has experienced a shift from relatively steady proliferation schemes to more complex and diverse challenges. New entities are gaining access to nuclear material and among them is a growing number of non-state actors. Some states continue to abuse international norms and rules overtly, while others opt for covert proliferation strategies.