Global Islamism Monitor: No. 49
Education, Taliban style;
The tip of the Taliban spear;
The Islamic State's new way of making money...;
...and a payday for its opponents;
Pressuring Pakistan
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Publications
Russia Reform Monitor: No. 2188
Navalny appeal denied;
Planning for war with the West
Russia Reform Monitor: No. 2187
How Russia hides the true cost of its foreign wars;
An expanding footprint in the Arctic
North Korea Wins The Propaganda Gold
Whatever other awards North Korean athletes earn at the Winter Olympics now underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea, their country has made a championship level effort at manipulating the international press.
This week, the American media went on overload in praise of North Korean Minister of Propaganda and Agitation Kim Yo Jong, sister to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The minister was praised for her poise, her smile, her fashion sense and her handwriting. The Washington Post compared her to Ivanka Trump, (which even the New York Times found a bit much). There hadn't been this kind of gushing over a dictator's handmaiden since Leni Reifenstahl was hailed as a genius for her Nazi propaganda film about the 1936 Munich Olympics. And North Korea's propaganda minister can return to her brother claiming a gold medal performance.
Germany’s Social Democrats Meet Their Day of Reckoning
Government formation in Germany is approaching a crunch point. The main center-right (CDU/CSU) and center-left (SPD) parties have reached an agreement on a new grand-coalition government, similar to that which preceded inconclusive national elections last September. The crunch point will be a referendum on that agreement by the dues-paying, card-carrying membership of the Social Democratic Party.