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Council on Foreign Relations
Terror Groups in India

IntroductionIndia has long suffered violence from extremist attacks based on separatist and secessionist movements, as well as ideological disagreements. In particular, the territorial dispute over India-controlled Kashmir is believed to have fueled large-scale terrorist attacks, such as the bombings of a Mumbai commuter railway in...

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Counterterrorism in India

IntroductionThe November 2008 deadly terrorist assault (ABC News) on Mumbai's hotel district and a spate of bomb attacks (BBC) across India's cities the same year have claimed hundreds of lives and once again raised questions about India's vulnerability to terrorism. According to the latest report on global...

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The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations

IntroductionPakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years. In autumn 2006,...

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Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary

Timothy F. Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is President Barack Obama's U.S. treasury secretary. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 26, 2009. Geithner was closely involved in recent talks surrounding the failure of investment bank...

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Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary Nominee

Timothy F. Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is President-elect Barack Obama's pick for U.S. treasury secretary. Geithner was closely involved in recent talks surrounding the failure of investment bank Lehman Brothers and the bailout of the insurance giant...

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Mexico's Spreading Drug Violence

Mexico's economy is slowing--remittances from abroad are down, as is U.S. demand for Mexican exports. But one sector is doing a brisk business--the funeral industry near the U.S. border (Reuters). Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began his offensive against drug cartels and organized criminals in...

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Financial Crisis May Worsen Poverty in China, India

IntroductionBy year's end, the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 wasstarting to be felt in the developing world, with slowdowns expected in all emerging economies. These growth declines could have significant effects on the world's poorest populations. The World Bank estimates that a...

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Turkey at an Energy Crossroads

IntroductionTurkey is an energy-transit nation that links Caspian and Central Asian suppliers with European consumers. But threatened interruptions to oil and gas transmission lines running through Turkey's Anatolian heartland have raised new questions about the country's place in the global energy market. In August 2008,...

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The Road Ahead in Afghanistan

As the war in Iraq appears to wind down, U.S. strategists are zeroing in on the "good war" (Stratfor), as the seven-year struggle for Afghanistan has been called. President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on plans to end the war in Iraq and bring U.S. more resources...

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Defense Spending During Economic Crisis

IntroductionWith some important caveats, military analysts broadly agree that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a U.S. military hobbled by aging weaponry, stretched to the breaking point by more than seven years of conflict, and funded by procurement and operational budgets that exceed even the most...

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U.S. Security Agreements and Iraq

IntroductionAs the United States prepared for a presidential transition, the Bush administration put the final touches on long-term agreements with Iraq's government intended to shape legal, economic, cultural, and security relations between the two countries well into President-elect Barack Obama's first term. U.S. and coalition...

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Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) (Spain, separatists, Euskadi ta Askatasuna)

IntroductionETA, one of Western Europe's last terrorist groups, is rumored to be weakening as a split forms between those who call for violent resistance and those who advocate negotiation. The November 2008 arrest of the group's alleged military leader, Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, may help swing...

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Relaunching Capitalism

This weekend's gathering in Washington of the G-20 industrial and developing economies, billed by some as the second coming of the historic Bretton Woods conference, seems likely to produce more modest ends. Bretton Woods came after years of preparation and five years of world war;...

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The Oil Investment Dilemma

A drop of over 50 percent in oil prices from their summer high of $147 per barrel seemed like good news to many beleaguered consumers. Instead, experts are signaling alarm. "Prices are falling, but they're falling for the wrong reasons: because of reduced demand and...

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Eastern Congo on the Brink

Six months ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a $9 billion agreement with China to provide Beijing with copper and cobalt in exchange for thousands of miles of roads and railways (BBC). Optimists saw the deal as a sign that the Congolese government--voted to...

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A Tribal Strategy for Afghanistan

IntroductionIn the hunt for a new strategy in Afghanistan, U.S. military commanders are studying the feasibility of recruiting Afghan tribesmen (LAT) to target Taliban and al-Qaeda elements. Taking a page from the so-called "Sunni Awakening" in Iraq, which turned Sunni tribesmen against militants first in...

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After the Troops

During the long presidential campaign that ended with a victory for Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) on November 4, few issues defined the candidates as much as the war in Iraq. President-elect Obama vowed to end the war and redeploy troops within sixteen months of taking...

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RAW: India's External Intelligence Agency

IntroductionIndia's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has long faced allegations of meddling in its neighbors' affairs. Founded in 1968, primarily to counter China's influence, over time it has shifted its focus to India's other traditional rival, Pakistan. RAW and Pakistan's spy...

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Emerging Markets, Converging Fears

As the current financial storm spread from a U.S. housing market problem to a credit crisis to a full-blown economic hurricane, its impact on emerging markets was initially confined to share prices. Equity indices in the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), which...

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Presidential Transitions and Foreign Policy

IntroductionPresident-elect Barack Obama faces one of the most difficult foreign policy landscapes of any modern incoming administration. The forty-fourth president will have to deal with a global financial crisis, two wars, nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran, and the ongoing threat of terrorism. This...

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Issue Guide: U.S. Election and International Issues

The cascading financial crisis dominated the final months of the U.S. presidential campaign but a range of national security and other foreign policy matters are also crowding the inbox of the next president. The challenges range from settling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to...

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