EPOS Insights

In the last two months, Sunni extremists spread terror across the Middle East and Africa. On June 29, 2014, the Islamic State self-proclaimed its caliphate. After one year, in correspondence to the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, the organization called its supporters to escalate violence. On June 26, the same day of IS attacks, and exactly 5 years after the 2010 Ramadan offensive against the African Union, Al Shabaab assaulted an AMISOM military base in Somalia. Last, but not least, Boko Haram disseminated panic in the Chadian capital. In the following exclusive article, EPOS analyst Lorenzo Siggillino focuses on the issue of Sunni terrorism, highlighting the causes and the effects of it from a political and social point of view 

EPOS Insights

Next July, Croatia is becoming the 28th member of the European Union. Croatia's EU accession will have several consequences, not only on the Croatian society and the EU itself, but also on the rest of the Balkan region, and in particular on the neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina where the Bosnian Croats and the Croatian-Muslim community will be divided once again

by Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra (EPOS)

EPOS Insights

The end of Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the commander of one of the world’s most dreaded terrorist organisations Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) has marked an end of the 26-year-old conflict in Sri Lanka. However, there are manifold challenges that the Sri Lanka government has to confront ranging from rehabilitation to reintegration.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the world's only theocratic governments ruled by clerics, is undergoing a major crisis of legitimacy .As thousands of Iranians braved state police in the streets of Tehran and other major cities, the Islamist state now faces considerable resistance from many oppositional factions, who see the elections as fraudulent and the ruling clerics as morally corrupt. Amid such crisis, one unlikely faction that has emerged to confront the regime is the Shia Islamic leadership based in the shrine-city of Qom.