The mourning of a nation

The airplane crash of flight MH17 in Eastern Ukraine shouted out the cruelty of a war conflict in the face of the whole world, as a single shot killed, in a single moment, nearly 300 people from twelve nationalities. Such unfortunate events are, sadly, well known to the world and sadly again, this is hardly the first moment completely innocent people are unwillingly involved in a conflict or a fight they have absolutely nothing in common with. The Lockerbie case is probably a suitable example of the same. In a good part of the last two centuries such events have almost always called an immediate and, in the majority of the cases, military response.

What to do about the Middle East?

For decades, the Middle East is facing political and military struggles.  Unfortunately, since several years it seems that tension is rising and is more often surfacing. Different countries are now openly confronting each other. This is a very delicate situation for Western states. The confrontations are threatening the geopolitical situation and can have long-term relational effects. So, what should the European countries, the USA and others do?

The news from the Middle East was dominated at first by the so-called Arab Spring, followed by fighting in Libya and Syria, continuous riots and fighting in Egypt and all-out civil war in Syria, and now the advancement of Jihadist forces, such as IS (previously known as ISIS or ISIL) in Iraq.