Libyan politics may rattle the oil sector yet again

Significance Libya’s hydrocarbons sector has seen a period of relative stability since the end in 2020 of eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar’s military offensive against Tripoli and the formation of the Government of National Unity in early 2021. Oil and gas revenues are central to the national budget -- and their control and distribution are focal points of political contention. Impacts The main risk to oil production in 2022 is the possibility of a renewed political crisis triggered by elections. Prompt payment of salaries and fees will remain important to discouraging private security forces from closing down oil infrastructure. Foreign oil and gas companies will become more cautious about new investment.

Non-Violence, Armed Struggle and Politics: A Conversation with Ronnie Kasrils

Based on interviews with Ronnie Kasrils, a former anc military commander and former intelligence minister in South Africa, this article examines that country’s struggle against apartheid. It looks at the interplay between violent and non-violent forms of resistance, explains the reasons for the anc and other South African liberation movements adopting the armed struggle after almost half a century of commitment to non-violence, and discusses the dilemmas within the movement in trying to ensure that the military component of the struggle always remained subservient to the political. The article also looks at the development of the political underground in South Africa, and its role, together with the armed struggle, in effecting the end of apartheid. Kasrils also discusses the period of political negotiations in South Africa, from 1990 to 1994, and the relationship between that and on-the-ground struggles – both armed and unarmed.

Unsettled Libyan politics may fuel violence in Tripoli

Significance The violence is indicative of growing friction between local Tripolitanian militias under the influence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and forces now loyal to the Government of National Unity (GNU), which in 2019 rallied from across western Libya to defend the capital from eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar’s siege. Impacts This is a last-ditch act by the UAE’s only remaining military assets in western Libya, and could provoke conflict with Turkish proxies. Violence involving Turkish-backed forces would refocus European attention on Ankara’s role in Libya and reignite pressure for a withdrawal. Renewed violence would end a recent economic revival in Tripoli, created by a period of peace and many reconstruction contracts.

From Croatia to Transylvania

The article gives the history of the noble Croatian family of Perušić, following the life and career of its main male representatives across three generations, from its emergence in sources in the mid-15th century up until its extinction in the male line in 1603. All three men – Gaspar (Gašpar) the Elder, Gaspar the Younger, and Matthew (Mate) – had primarily military careers, leading cavalry units and fighting either the Turks or other Christian nobles in civil wars which burdened Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary, and Transylvania from the late 15th to the early 17th century. Gaspar the Elder was the vice-ban of Croatia-Dalmatia and is a relatively well-known figure in Croatian historiography, while the lives of his son and grandson are thoroughly researched for the first time in this article. Gaspar the Younger, initially a supporter of the Habsburgs, was fighting the Ottomans in Croatia until 1532, with significant success, and was later engaged in civil strife in Slavonia, changing the sides he supported several times. He finally opted for King John Zápolya around 1538 and migrated to Zápolya’s realm, settling finally in Transylvania, where he gained many estates and served several de jure and de facto rulers, including another fellow Croat – the bishop of Oradea, George Martinuzzi (Juraj Utišenović Martinušević). His son Matthew, the last male member of this line of the Perušić family, spent his lifetime as a military commander for various Transylvanian rulers, almost always joining the winning side in the conflict and gaining the house in the informal capital – Alba Iulia. He died in a battle in 1603, survived by his sisters’ (Catherine’s and Anna’s) descendants.

Byzantine Archaeological Remains in Beer Sheva, Israel

Beer Sheba in the Byzantine period was a large and important city in the province of Palestine Tertia. It served as an administrative, religious, and military center, and seat of the Roman military commander of Palestine. Beer Sheva is mentioned in many sources, including historical texts, epigraphic sources, and archaeological research. In recent years, following archaeological excavations conducted at the city's new transportation center have been uncovered Be'er Sheva's Byzantine residential neighborhoods. These excavations open a new window into the daily life of the city, in a way that did not exist before. The residential neighborhoods surrounded the city center to the north, east, and west and included buildings built on local loess soil and complexes dug within it. Industrial areas and large cemeteries with hundreds of tombs were located around the city. The state historical and archaeological research to date does not allow for a complete picture of the city in the Byzantine period. This article centralizes and summarizes most of the work on the subject to date and brings new insights to Byzantine Beer Sheva.

The Praetorian Guard, Rome’s Intelligence Service

Rome was a kingdom, then a republic, and culminated in a militaristic empire. For this, the city of Mars invented, perfected and organized efficient institutions to carry out its plans, which extended it from the Italic Peninsula throughout the world on which Rome had a say. One of the most efficient institutions, the essence of the Roman executive power, was not the Princeps, but the Praetorian Guard, a military and police institution, at the same time political, economic, but especially with the powers of a secret service, being one of the forerunners of European secret services, surpassing all that had existed until its functioning, not being matched to this day in terms of efficiency and impact in the life of a civilization. When founding the Principate, the Praetorian Guard was the one which transformed the imperial dream of Rome into a historical reality. The “wings of the Roman eagle” that spread over the world conquered by the Romans were Praetorian, if we consider that this institution was coordinated by ordo equester, the tagma of Rome’s career officers, its headquarters, but also the government of Rome, the praetorian prefect also fulfilling the function which today we would call prime minister, the second man in the hierarchy of the Roman state, of course after the princeps (the first of the citizens).Although as a military structure, the Praetorian Guard appeared with the professional Roman army, it reached its peak with the Principate, initially having a guard function for the Roman military commander, it became in time the most effective secret service of classical Antiquity. This success was due to the fact that the Romans were inspired by the Spartans (especially the Ephorian magistrates), but also by the Persians (from the administrative organization of the satrapies, the 10,000 immortals, and especially the royal postal service of Persia), the Roman creation being the most complete, therefore the etymology of the word “information” is Latin.From a military perspective, the Praetorian Guard was organized at all levels of a global society, such as Rome, covering informatively, politically, militarily, economically, but also diplomatically all Roman interests in the world controlled by Rome, being a true intelligence service. It was the first informative outpost in non-Roman territories, which had to be transformed into Roman territories, as was the case of Dacia.

The Surrealist Revolutionaries

This chapter begins with Marshal Tito's proclamation of being the commander-in-chief of the National-Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (NOPOJ) as he was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). It looks at Tito's article “The Task of the National-Liberation Partisan Detachments,” in which he defines the formations and tactics that must be used. It also points out how detailed planning helped make communists successful when fighting on secret fronts or waging guerrilla warfare. The chapter describes Konstantin “Koča” Popović as Tito's military commander and the greatest general of the Second World War. It emphasizes how Koča was the single most important cadre among the tough people from the communist underground who was essential for the ensuing war.