Abstract: Diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey have existed since the Jewish state came into being in 1948, however, they have remained covert until recently. Contacts between the two countries have continued despite Turkey's condemnation of Israel in the UN and other official bodies. Frequent statements made by Turkish officials regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian dilemma give the impression that Turco-Israeli relations have been far more hostile than is actually the case. Such an image is quite misleading, for throughout the years political, commercial, cultural and even military contacts have been maintained between the two countries. The purpose of this article is to show the extent of cooperation between the two countries and to demonstrate how domestic as well as external constraints have affected the diplomatic ties between them. It will be argued that during the first forty years of Israel's existence relations between the two countries remained cordial. Both sides kept a low profile and did not reveal the nature of these ties. It was only toward the end of the 1980s, when the international political climate underwent a major upheaval, that the ties between the two countries became official and overt.

Abstract: Ethnic division is a source of both conflict and cooperation in all societies. Conflicts erupt and escalate when sparked by political power struggles and are underpinned by complicated political alliances in which ethnic identity and affiliations are key variables. The post-Cold War international system is experiencing an increase in the scope and intensity of conflicts underlined by violent and internecine ethnic rivalries. The former Yugoslavia, Somalia, South Africa, and Liberia are the more recent and notable cases. To a greater or lesser extent, many of the interethnic conflict situations that have either subsided or are ongoing have antecedents involving colonial rule or a foreign group. While this historical legacy perhaps is a major contributory factor to many of the varied internal political, economic, and social issues, the roots of ongoing conflicts are often actions and policies established during colonial rule, even though the colonial power may no longer be directly involved in the conflict. Examples are power left in the hands of favored minorities; the divide and rule tactics of colonial administrators; and artificial borders that permanently separated members of the same ethnic group. Moreover, the \"wefeeling\" or communauté de conscience associated with each ethnic group, in times of crisis become further polarized and come into direct confrontation with that of other ethnic groups. One consequence may be violence or civil war. It is therefore essential, as armed conflicts continue to erupt, that the underlying factors that spawn ethnic polarization in African political conflicts be examined. This analysis is therefore an examination of first, situational factors of ethnic-based violence; second, social-structural imbalances as elements of ethnic polarization; and finally, the relationship of these factors to ethnopolitical violence in the Liberian Civil War.

Abstract: The end of the Cold War has produced many changes in the international system. One significant change is the growing demand for United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces to end hostilities around the globe. The nature and scope of these demands have strained the UN's ability to respond. In October 1993, the UN was managing 80.000 multinational troops in sixteen separate operations. As the UN's tasks have increased in scope and number. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has called for alternative peacekeeping operations to supplement UN sponsored missions. In his An Agenda for Peace, Boutros-Ghali proposed that regional organizations could play a larger role in resolving conflicts among and within their member states. This article will evaluate the advantages and limitations these two types of forces have in responding to similar conflicts. To evaluate whether regional peacekeeping forces are a viable, or perhaps superior, alternative to UN peacekeeping operations. I will compare the results of intervention in Liberia and Somalia by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and United Nations forces respectively.

Abstract: During the years following the Second World War, intensive research was undertaken on the subject of response to threat. Confronted with the baffling, yet recurrent inability of nations to respond adequately to warnings of an impending attack, many scholars concentrated on such events as the Pearl Harbor attack, the Barbarossa Operation, and the outbreak of the Korean War, and produced a voluminous body of literature. Alongside the plethora of works which sought explanations solely in terms of the specific conditions operating at the time of the event analyzed, a few other inquiries attempted to integrate the case under scrutiny into a broader theoretical framework in order to better elucidate the inherent patterns by which nations cope with situations of crisis and threat. On the whole, the literature dealing with the failure of national actors to stand up to the challenge of an imminent assault can be divided into two major categories, which differ widely from one another in terms of the explicit and implicit premises, the specific nature of the explanation advanced, and the level of abstraction. These may be termed the analytic-revisionist and the cognitive-perceptual categories.

Abstract: The reality, however, is that the federal judiciary now examines a wide range of intelligence activities under a number of laws, including the Constitution. In order to decide particular issues under the law, federal judges and their cleared clerks and other staff are shown material classified at the highest levels. There is no requirement that federal judges be granted security clearances — their access to classified information is an automatic aspect of their status. Their supporting staffs must be vetted, but court employees are usually granted all clearances necessary for them to effectively assist the judiciary in resolving legal issues before the courts.

Abstract: Since early 1992. the Sudanese Government has made a concerted effort to conclude militarily its long-running civil war with the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang. While Khartoum initially made serious inroads into insurgent-held territory, these gains were confined largely to former rebel garrisons, leaving the SPLA controlling much of the countryside. Moreover, the insurgents exacted a terrible price in terms of the number of government soldiers killed, while the financial cost of the escalated fighting took a continued toll on the Sudanese economy. Now, more than three years after the government launched the \"final\" assault against the SPLA, the two sides appear to be mired in a conflict in which both lack the means to win, yet which neither can afford to lose. The purpose of this essay is to briefly examine the origins and nature of the Sudanese Civil War, then describe and assess the government's counterinsurgency campaign against the SPLA in 1992, and finally, comment on the outlook for the future in Sudan.

Abstract: The international system is in a period of state expansion, or at least attempted expansion. More entities are trying to assert their independence now than at any time since the decolonization era of the 1950s and 1960s. In the process the state is being battered as both a concept and a legitimate reservoir of popular allegiance. The supposed benefits of national sovereignty are being challenged in a variety of ways throughout the world. States, in their traditional sense, are becoming both smaller and larger, and both less and more than was expected of them during the first half of the twentieth century. New organizations — regional associations both within and among traditional states, economic associations, social, ethnic and religious communities, affiliations based on interests or purpose rather than geographic propinquity — are all challenging the traditional role and sovereignty of the state in international politics. This article attempts to shed some light on what is happening, why this is so and what lessons are to be learned from previous African experience about alternative affiliation communities.

Abstract: With an age of some 4.000 years, Jerusalem is one of the world's oldest cities. Although there have been numerous changes in regime, prominent issues confronting the present city resemble those of times past, and certain continuities can be found in the policy strategies pursued by those who have governed Jerusalem. This article compares the strategy of the present regime with those apparent in previous periods from the sixth century BC.

Abstract: Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the United States faced the task of having to determine how to respond to foreign governments that did not aggressively seek to curtail the actions of communists within their states. This problem was not endemic to any one region, but it had a distinct significance in Latin America. The US government became convinced that the “the domination or control of the political institutions of any American State by the international communist movement . . . would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and political independence of American States.\

Abstract: While the enduring issues of political union in Europe and political disunion in the former Soviet Union point to the traditional importance of these regions, analysts of world politics would be well advised to maintain a strong interest in the Persian Gulf region. Its geographic position as a bridgehead between three continents, its vital importance to the functioning of the global economy, and its potential volatility make it one of the more significant regions in world politics as we approach the turn of the century.

Abstract: The issue this article addresses is how to improve the intelligence product. That is, how to make it more acceptable to those who use it as an input to the policy and decision-making process. The most senior officials responsible for making policy determine, to a large extent, what the priorities are. They have the responsibility and the power to insure that resources are applied to answering their questions. Thus, the central principle of intelligence as practiced today in the United States is that the president is the most senior policy maker and therefore the most important consumer of the intelligence product. The chief executive asks the questions that get the highest priority.

Abstract: With the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the bipolar lenses through which many viewed the world of political violence and terrorism are gone. No longer can the complexity of this world be reduced to an international terror network of Soviet handlers, agents and proxies working in concert to destabilize the Western world. The definitional and typological complexities that were so cavalierly papered over during the 1970s and 1980s have begun to resurface in the discourse of those concerned with counter-terrorism. Cold warriors who forced a counterinsurgency model onto all things political and violent are now casting about to discern a new world disorder, a new agent of pernicious antiWestern threats. While the current favorite seems to be Islamic fundamentalism, as evidenced by the obscene haste with which commentators attributed the Oklahoma City bombing to Islamic extremists, other candidates include Columbian drug lords and a kind of multinational corporate mafia. Indeed, the post-Cold War era is marked by a dizzying array of conflicts throughout the world and a panoply of actors willing to resort to violence in the name of a wide variety of causes. This is the context in which the US Director of Central Intelligence remarked in 1994 that the jungle is filled no longer with dragons, but with snakes. Yet, as one astute observer retorted, \"I thought dragons were mythical beasts: snakes are dangerously real.\" In other words, the dragons of the Cold War, at least in the context of terrorism and political violence, were more imaginary than real.