Russia and allies seek damage limitation with Taliban

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Security ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Security Treaty ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Damage Limitation ◽  
Almost All ◽  
North Western ◽  
Regional Governments

Significance Since May the Taliban have taken control of almost all areas adjoining Central Asian borders. A remaining stretch between Turkmenistan and north-western Afghanistan is likely to follow soon. Disrupted trade and a possible refugee influx are not the only worries for regional governments; the presence of Central Asian jihadists in areas captured by the Taliban is cause for concern. Impacts Uzbekistan and Tajikistan may review their refusal to host a US military base, but have many reasons to avoid going ahead. The Uzbek presidency says there are no plans to join Russia's Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Even the most reluctant Central Asian policymakers will have to engage with the Taliban to press them to keep other jihadists in check.

Chagos ruling will boost chances of Mauritian return

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Chagos Archipelago

Significance A majority finding by the ICJ declared the excision of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius shortly before its independence illegal and suggested that UN member states should debate the issue of sovereignty at the earliest opportunity. The FCO insists that the Islands, one of which hosts a US military base, are of key strategic importance for anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations. Impacts Issues related to the Islanders' resettlement and compensation could prove more fraught than the process of transferring sovereignty. Chagossian representative groups will likely push for certain guarantees from the leading Mauritian political parties ahead of 2019 polls. The return of the Islands to Mauritius could prompt the rapid exploration of fish stocks and mineral resources and oil finds around Chagos.

Central Asia's militaries will lag NATO and Russia

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Modern Equipment ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Military Expenditures ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
Weapons Procurement ◽  
Regional Governments

Subject Central Asian militaries Significance Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are leading other Central Asian governments in increased spending on military and security forces and the procurement of modern equipment. Regional governments have long-standing fears of potential Russian military interference and remain concerned about the situation in Afghanistan. The increase in military expenditures is expanding capabilities, although the degree and pace of improvement varies from country to country, and regional militaries still lag Russian and NATO forces. Impacts Russian forces presence in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will increase. Turkmenistan will place greater emphasis on modern weapons procurement and naval assets. Mobile and counter-terrorism focused forces will be seen as more important than conventional land forces.

Islamist threat is limited but growing in Kazakhstan

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Investor Confidence ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Western Kazakhstan ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
To Receive ◽  
North Western ◽  
Answering Questions ◽  
Police Raid

Significance Meyram Ayubaev was answering questions about the man held for the July 18 shooting of four police and a civilian in Almaty. That incident came within six weeks of attacks that left seven people dead in Aktobe in north-western Kazakhstan, and a separate incident in which a suspect blew himself up during a police raid. Kazakhstan has been less susceptible to Islamic radicalisation than other Central Asian states, but fears that the threat is rising have prompted plans for tighter controls. Impacts More frequent terror attacks would dent foreign investor confidence. The government's sense of vulnerability will prompt greater security cooperation with Russia, China and regional blocs. The current National Counter-Terrorism Programme is likely to receive extra funding.

scholarly journals A QUARTER OF THE CENTURY IS ON THE GUARD OF COLLECTIVE SECURITY AGAINST THE ASYMMETRIC CONFLICTS AND HYBRID WARS (TO THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY AND THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CSTO)

2018 ◽  
pp. 367-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Seleznev
Keyword(s):  
Regional Security ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Shanghai Cooperation Organization ◽  
25Th Anniversary ◽  
Security Treaty ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Asymmetric Conflicts ◽  
15Th Anniversary ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Islamic Extremism

In 2017 was the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 15 years of the establishment of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). This organization stands on guard for the regional security of Central Asian countries. In addition, countries in the region actively involved in the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which also builds its policy on the position of maintaining security in the Central Asian region. Only the coalition efforts of all interested States can provide an effective counteraction to threats of terrorism, Islamic extremism, separatism, drug trafficking. The organizational-institutional framework the CSTO and the SCO allow to the countries of the region to combat threats of the asymmetric conflicts and hybrid wars. The paper is devoted to the institutional forms, and future prospects, the capabilities and problem points of cooperation in the field of security in the framework of these international organizations.

Islamic State's Central Asian growth stalled for now

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Returning Home ◽  
Regional Governments

Significance Thousands of Central Asians travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for IS and other Islamist groups in 2014 and some are returning home. Despite attacks in Central Asia attributable to home-grown IS supporters, the threat of IS expansion is less immediate than sometimes asserted by commentators, regional governments and jihadists themselves. Impacts A further deterioration in Afghan security would create space for IS to consolidate and then infiltrate Central Asia. IS may support Central Asian attacks as an indirect way of pressuring Russia. The Taliban pose no threat to Central Asia despite their militant connections.

Somalia faces deepening al-Shabaab threat

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Governance ◽  
African Union ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Military Base ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Direct Elections ◽  
Threat Environment

Significance In recent weeks, al-Shabaab has conducted assassinations in Mogadishu, attacked African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) convoys and an AMISOM base, ambushed US-trained Somali troops just outside the main US military base and launched cross-border raids into Kenya. None of these attacks are out of the ordinary. Indeed, new data show that, over the past year, al-Shabaab has re-emerged as Africa’s deadliest jihadist group. In part, this reflects the much-reduced threat environment it currently faces. Impacts Increasingly deadly ambushes may force AMISOM to rely more on air and sea routes to deliver supplies. Al-Shabaab will try to disrupt efforts to build democratic governance, including attempts to organise direct elections by 2020-21. The still-incapable and under-resourced Somali army may be exposed if AMISOM starts to transfer security responsibilities to it.

Lumbosacral intersegmental epispinal axons and ectopic ventral nerve rootlets

1987 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley W. Parke ◽  
Ryo Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Nerve Root ◽  
Sensory Nerve ◽  
Conus Medullaris ◽  
Spinal Nerve ◽  
Nerve Fibers ◽  
Ventral Horn ◽  
Spinal Nerve Roots ◽  
Nerve Roots ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Almost All

✓ An epispinal system of motor axons virtually covers the ventral and lateral funiculi of the human conus medullaris between the L-2 and S-2 levels. These nerve fibers apparently arise from motor cells of the ventral horn nuclei and join spinal nerve roots caudal to their level of origin. In all observed spinal cords, many of these axons converged at the cord surface and formed an irregular group of ectopic rootlets that could be visually traced to join conventional spinal nerve roots at one to several segments inferior to their original segmental level; occasional rootlets joined a dorsal nerve root. As almost all previous reports of nerve root interconnections involved only the dorsal roots and have been cited to explain a lack of an absolute segmental sensory nerve distribution, it is believed that these intersegmental motor fibers may similarly explain a more diffuse efferent distribution than has previously been suspected.

Applicability of the DUNDRUM-1 in a forensic Belgium setting

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Habets ◽  
Inge Jeandarme ◽  
Harry G. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Security Level ◽  
Rater Reliability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Forensic Patients ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Dundrum Toolkit ◽  
Male Patients ◽  
Receive Treatment ◽  
Almost All

Purpose Criteria to determine in which level of security forensic patients should receive treatment are currently non-existent in Belgium. Research regarding the assessment of security level is minimal and few instruments are available. The DUNDRUM toolkit is a structured clinical judgement instrument that can be used to provide support when determining security level. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability and validity of the DUNDRUM-1 in Flanders. Design/methodology/approach The DUNDRUM-1 was scored for 50 male patients admitted at the forensic units in the public psychiatric hospital Rekem. Some files were rated by three researchers who were blind to participants’ security status, resulting in 33 double measurements. Findings Almost all files (96 per cent) contained enough information to score the DUNDRUM-1. Average DUNDRUM-1 final judgement scores were concordant with a medium security profile. No difference was found between the current security levels and the DUNDRUM-1 final judgement scores. Inter-rater reliability was excellent for the DUNDRUM-1 final judgement scores. On item level, all items had excellent to good inter-rater reliability with the exception of one item institutional behaviour which had an average inter-rater reliability. Practical implications The DUNDRUM-1 can be a useful tool in Flemish forensic settings. It has good psychometric properties. More research is needed to investigate the relationship between DUNDRUM-1 scores and security level decisions by the courts. Originality/value This is the first study that investigated the applicability of the DUNDRUM-1 in a Belgian setting, also a relative large number of repeated measurements were available to investigate the inter-rater reliability of the DUNDRUM-1.

scholarly journals A Distinctive and Host-Restricted Gut Microbiota in Populations of a Cactophilic Drosophila Species

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent G. Martinson ◽  
Javier Carpinteyro-Ponce ◽  
Nancy A. Moran ◽  
Therese A. Markow
Keyword(s):  
Sonoran Desert ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Columnar Cacti ◽  
Social Bees ◽  
Insect Gut ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Natural Settings ◽  
Bacterial Groups

ABSTRACT Almost all animals possess gut microbial communities, but the nature of these communities varies immensely. For example, in social bees and mammals, the composition is relatively constant within species and is dominated by specialist bacteria that do not live elsewhere; in laboratory studies and field surveys of Drosophila melanogaster, however, gut communities consist of bacteria that are ingested with food and that vary widely among individuals and localities. We addressed whether an ecological specialist in its natural habitat has a microbiota dominated by gut specialists or by environmental bacteria. Drosophila nigrospiracula is a species that is endemic to the Sonoran Desert and is restricted to decaying tissues of two giant columnar cacti, Pachycereus pringlei (cardón cactus) and Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro cactus). We found that the D. nigrospiracula microbiota differs strikingly from that of the cactus tissue on which the flies feed. The most abundant bacteria in the flies are rare or completely absent in the cactus tissue and are consistently abundant in flies from different cacti and localities. Several of these fly-associated bacterial groups, such as the bacterial order Orbales and the genera Serpens and Dysgonomonas, have been identified in prior surveys of insects from the orders Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera, including several Drosophila species. Although the functions of these bacterial groups are mostly unexplored, Orbales species studied in bees are known to break down plant polysaccharides and use the resulting sugars. Thus, these bacterial groups appear to be specialized to the insect gut environment, where they may colonize through direct host-to-host transmission in natural settings. IMPORTANCE Flies in the genus Drosophila have become laboratory models for microbiota research, yet the bacteria commonly used in these experiments are rarely found in wild-caught flies and instead represent bacteria also present in the food. This study shows that an ecologically specialized Drosophila species possesses a distinctive microbiome, composed of bacterial types absent from the flies' natural food but widespread in other wild-caught insects. This study highlights the importance of fieldwork-informed microbiota research.

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