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ISN Launches New Service – ISN Insights

Post author By Mara Caputo
Post date 04/10/2010
No Comments on ISN Launches New Service – ISN Insights

ISN_160x120 — International Relations and Security Network (ISN) logo

Today we are pleased to announce the launch of our new editorial service – ISN Insights – designed to provide you with daily in-depth analysis of the most critical international trends and events of our day.

ISN Insights will provide you with original ISN analyses, expert commentaries and comprehensive backgrounders on the hot-button and underreported issues shaping our world in the 21st century. Written by well-established and up-and-coming researchers, academics, policymakers and specialized journalists, ISN Insights represents a diversity of voices on international and security issues that do not necessarily receive proper attention in traditional media outlets.

ISN Insights merges the best of our two established editorial products – ISN Security Watch and ISN Special Reports – into a streamlined, one-stop shop for international affairs and security coverage. Like ISN Security Watch, ISN Insights will continue to provide you with daily editorial updates – publishing an original ISN article Monday through Thursday, complemented by a Friday ISN Podcast interview with a leading expert in the field. In addition, in-depth articles on macro trends and events of international relevance will also be regularly featured, as we have long done with ISN Special Reports.

But that’s not all: Like ISN Special Reports did before it, ISN Insights offers you a package of information, combining an original article with our extensive digital library holdings on the topic. And this package is now available each and every day – providing you with an unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage of the issues that matter most to you.

One element of our editorial agenda hasn’t changed, however: Our commitment to providing you with the expert insights that help keep you abreast of the most pressing international relations and security topics of our day.

Keyword in Focus

Keyword in Focus: Latvia

This Saturday, Latvia will hold its first parliamentary elections after suffering the deepest recession in the EU last year. The vote could well determine whether the small Baltic state with its 2 million inhabitants will remain on track for entry into the eurozone in 2014.

A recent poll has found that the ruling center-right coalition government of Valdis Dombrovkis still has a slim chance of remaining in power. The government has managed to stabilize the economy with an IMF and EU- backed austerity program.

However, uncertainty remains due to an expected strong showing by the left-leaning Harmony Center party, a Russian-speaking opposition minority group, which hopes that anger over the austerity measures will win it most votes and a possible place in government for the first time since the country regained independence 20 years ago.

Explore our holdings on Latvia, our keyword in focus. Some highlights include:

A CEPR paper on Latvia’s recession
A CEPS paper on the relationship between the Baltic States and Russia
News stories on US military aid to Eastern European states, including Latvia, and the economic meltdown in Iceland and Latvia
Links to relevant Organizations, including the Chancery of the President of Latvia with news on Latvian foreign and domestic policy

Tags Latvia, Elections

Keyword in Focus

From Pop Star to Jihadist?

Post author By Kaisa Schreck
Post date 30/09/2010
No Comments on From Pop Star to Jihadist?

Now, this would certainly make for an unlikely path in life.

Rumours abound in Indonesia that jailed pop star Nasir “Ariel” Irham (jailed for his involvement in a sex scandal under the controversial 2008 anti-pornography law) has had contact with Abu Bakar Bashir, the notorious Indonesian jihadist and founding member of the notorious but increasingly weak Jemaah Islamiyah group, while in prison.

Although Bashir allegedly castigated the young man for his un-Islamic ways, the former heartthrob has reportedly been attending mass prayer held my Bashir in prison and may have sought out advice from the radical cleric.

The fact that this information comes from Bashir’s personal assistant hardly makes it all that credible. The old man is probably just seeking some street cred among the increasingly non-Jemaah Islamiyah oriented young jihadists in Southeast Asia and ‘converting’ a young, ‘broken’ pop star to their cause might be good PR for the ailing demagogue.

Whatever the reality of the situation in this specific case, the story highlights some very important dilemmas: How a multicultural and tolerant Indonesia will deal with fundamentalist and religiously conservative pressures in the future and how young people, eager to embrace many aspects of more liberal western lifestyles (including pop stars), will deal with these pressures from below and above.

And perhaps more universally: How do you prevent and discourage radicalization in prisons, where psychological and physical conditions make young men particularly susceptible to a message that preaches power to those that are bound to feel powerless?

Our Digital Library offers a wealth of resources on the keywords psychology of terrorism and terrorism recruitment. Make sure to check out:

A USIP report on why young people join Al-Qaida
An RSIS commentary on the recruitment tactics of Indonesian jihadists
An RSIS paper examining the patterns of radicalization in Southeast Asia and the Jemaah Islamiyah group
An International Crisis Group briefing on the growing attractiveness of a jihadi narrative in the wake of the floods and worsening IDP crisis in Pakistan
An Elcano Royal Institute working paper on radicalization in the Muslim diaspora in Europe
A recent ISN Podcast on the Europeanization of jihad and the challenge this poses to counterradicalization efforts on the continent

Tags Security, Indonesia, Terrorism, Religion, Radicalization

Keeping Mothers Alive

mother and child — Mother and child in Chadian refugee camp, photo: Physicians for Human Rights/flickr

Last week the international community convened in New York to discuss progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, with maternal mortality among those lagging furthest behind. This week the ISN takes a closer look at the unabating danger of women’s death and acute injury during childbirth – and what the international community is doing about it.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

An Analysis by Allyn Gaestel about the impact of last week’s UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit on goal number five: maternal health.

A Podcast interview with Claudia Leimgruber-Neukom of Women’s Hope International about the tragedy of obstetric fistulas developed through childbirth – and how education is the key to addressing the condition.

Security Watch articles discussing the obstacles to achieving the MDGs by 2015.

Publications housed in our Digital Library, including the Overseas Development Institute’s ‘MDG Report Card’ published earlier this month.

Primary Resources, like the full-text of the UN Millennium Declaration at the dawn of a new century.

Links to relevant websites, like a Time video, featuring a short film on current maternal health issues in Sierra Leone.

Our IR Directory, featuring the Washington, DC-based Center for Women Policy Studies.

Tags Health, United Nations, Development, Maternal mortality, Mortal