For Australian government ministers to harness the economic benefits of refugees for both Australia and refugees’ host countries, the impediments of securing meaningful employment must be recognised and addressed. These include: the extensive time in Australia’s offshore detention centres which not only reduces education and employment capabilities but also costs the Australian government over A$400,000 a year per person (Button …

The fall of Kabul to the Taliban came as a shock to most observers. Besides the unknown future awaiting the Afghan population, especially the female part of it, which rose quickly to the attention of the international community, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a new wave of refugees to the EU (Euronews, 2021). Another recent example where a government …

The presidential election in Belarus on August 9, 2020 was followed by an extraordinary surge of social protests against Aleksandar Lukashenka’s regime. The flagrant fraud of election results, which declared Lukashenka the winner with approximately 80% of the vote, was the catalyst for these protests. As a result of widespread protests and strikes, the government responded with brute force, beatings …

A potentially tide-changing development has been taking place in Albania in recent times. Tirana and Ankara are keen on increasing their cooperation in various areas from security to trade and investments, however,  in particular in the defense and military sector (Exit News, 2021). For later this year, a state visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planned as the …

The foundation of the modern state of Saudi Arabia has been based on the idea of an expansion of the territories controlled by the Saud family with the help of the Wahabit beduins. But as the Wahabit forces grew stronger the monarch Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud sought the cooperation of the British who were in Kuwait and Iraq. This unprecedented …

Holding advantageous and geostrategic location, Turkey is the land bridge from Europe to the Middle East, South Asia and even Africa. It is a powerful regional power in the Black Sea area, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. During the times of Ottomans, the above-mentioned territories were under the control of Ottoman Empire what is …

Colombia has been witnessing mass social unrest during the last year. The street protests started in April against the unpopular tax reform initiated by the President Iván Duque (BBC, 2021 “Colombians take to the streets to oppose tax reform”). The protests quickly spread across the country and has turned into a mass movement with daily demonstrations.  The demonstrators were calling …

On Tuesday, July 20, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at the 47th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the island of Cyprus. Therein, he emphasized that any future peace talks depends on a two-state solution declaring that “(w)e are right and we will defend our right to the end” (Aljazzera, 2021). Nicosia insists on its sovereignty over the whole …

The 2020 US-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords, marked an agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)[1] which included the diplomatic normalisation of relations as well as economic and trade relations between both states (Larsen, 2021). The deal allowed for the mutual opening of embassies, direct flights between the UAE and Israel and other bilateral deals. In …

After eight years of complex negotiations, in November 2020, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed what constitutes the world’s most important trade agreement: the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership (the RCEP), which includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the ten ASEAN economies (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The RCEP covers …