Documentary Watch [Voltaire Network]

Documentary Watch

Selection of studies and documents published by research centres and national or international institutions

230 articles

Português 5 italiano 4 français 120 English 36 Español 36 عربي 11 русский 13 Deutsch 5

25 September 2012
«This Fox has a longing for grapes:
He jumps, but the bunch still escapes.
So he goes away sour;
And, ’tis said, to this hour
Declares that he’s no taste for grapes»
Jean de la Fontaine, The Fox and the Grapes
The Center for A New American Security (CNAS) published a study on the possible changes in Syria and how to defend U.S. and Israeli interests according to different scenarios. Given the considerable influence that the CNAS exerts on the Obama administration, in general, and on the (...)

Storytelling: NATO rewrites the Syrian conflict

20 May 2012
Yossef Bodansky, the U.S.-Israeli expert who wrote the official history of Al Qaeda, is back. The one who had explained with a straight face that bin Laden was both an Iraqi and Iranian agent, and that Saddam Hussein had financed the attacks of September 11, no longer works for the U.S. Congress and the Defense Department, but for the Institute Strategie für Politik-und-Sicherheits-Wirtschaftsberatung (ISPSW) in Berlin, a, Atlanticist think tank.
He has just published a paper soberly titled (...)

Syria: For the UK, it is urgent to do nothing

4 April 2012
The House of Commons Library is supposed to provide completely "impartial advice and analysis" to Members of the UK Parliament and their staff. The least that one can say is that this debriefing on the crisis in Syria after 12 months of unrest is somewhat general and vague.
After examining the different types of sanctions inflicted on Syria, the report observes that no external intervention is possible because of Russia’s and China’s adamancy to abide by international law at the Security (...)

According to WINEP, the Shiites banned the atomic bomb to better conceal they are building it

27 September 2011
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), which denounced the supposedly military nature of the Iranian nuclear program, must regularly be confronted with a hefty contention: how is it possible that the Revolutionary Guards could be developing such a program in secret when the manufacture, stockpiling, threat and use of weapons of mass destruction were forbidden by a fatwa of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution?
After its long-standing denial of the fatwa’s existence, the (...)

Does the G20 serve any purpose?

18 May 2011
The Institute for Security Studies, linked to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, published a study on the G20.
The author endorses the rhetoric according to which the G20 allows emergent economic powers to have a hand in world global management. On this premises, he posits that the G20 provides the ideal context for elaborating a new multilateralism.
However, all along, his study shows exactly the opposite: namely, that the G20 has in no way (...)

The doctors at the Guantánamo torture center

5 May 2011
Scientific magazine PLoS Medecine has published a study by Dr Vincent Iacopino (senior medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights) and retired Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis on the role played by doctors at the Guantánamo torture centre.
Guantanamo’s premises are structured in separate detention blocks. The study examines the cases of nine people detained in the prison boasting the least severe conditions. It shows that the doctors purposefully covered up abuses and prepped the (...)

USA-UK : Discrepancies between official accounts of the Libyan war

4 May 2011
The US Congressional Research Services and the UK’s House of Commons have published separately a summary paper on the first military operations in Libya.
The thrust lies in their comparison: whereas the historical background is the same, their account of the facts differs. The US document remains vague when it comes to the chain of command, while the British document is more explicit as regards US dominance.
==
Operation Odyssey Dawn (Libya): Background and Issues for Congress, under (...)

The USA forecast 8 billion dollars for a 6-month no-fly zone operation

3 May 2011
A study from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), published on 9 March 2011, assesses the possible financial cost for the USA to implement a no-fly zone in Libya.
Extrapolating from the costs of previous similar operations conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq, the authors have estimated it, on average, at 10 USD per year and per square meter. As a result, a no-fly zone over the vast Libyan desert would prove to be particularly pricey.
The CSBA believes (...)

Pentagon still employs same number of mercenaries

2 May 2011
The US Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently published a study on Pentagon "armed contractors". It appears that the contingent of mercenaries in Iraq has halved, a trend that corresponds to the displacement of US troops outside of Iraq towards other countries in the Middle-East. At the same time, the number of contractors has multiplied by five in two years.
In reality, these two phenomena cannot be compared. “Armed contractors” in Iraq are foreign mercenaries. They had been hired (...)

The U.S. colored revolution user manual for Egypt

2 March 2011
The United States had anticipated a revolution in Egypt for some time, even if they predicted it would occur at the death of their puppet, Hosni Mubarak. Consequently, they were standing ready to step in.
From the first week of demonstrations in Cairo, Washington detached a team from the Albert Einstein Institution. A manual, already used in other countries, was translated into Arabic and disseminated to shepherd demonstrators towards the Facebook and Twitter services set up the the (...)

Two-thirds of Iranians behind Ahmadinejad

20 February 2011
The International Peace Institute recently released the results of a telephone survey of Iranians.
According to the poll, Iranians are clearly split in a one third/two thirds ratio. The majority came out in favour of continuing the Islamic Revolution under President Ahmadinejad. On its part, the minority wishes to suspend financial support to Hamas and Hezbollah, hopes for closer ties with the United States, and backs opposition leader Moussavi.
The International Peace Institute is (...)

US aid to Egypt intended for Gaza siege

8 February 2011
Breaking with its normal attributes, the U.S. Congressional Research Service handed out to legislators, "hot off the press", a summary of Egypt-U.S. relations dated 28 January, that is, from the very outset of the Egyptian mass protests.
It transpires that Washington provides annually:
250 million US dollars for economic aid.
1 300 million US dollars for military aid.
2 million US dollars to sustain the political change over.
To which must be added the funds for special (...)

The botched Pentagon propaganda programme

27 January 2011
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is concerned about the funds mobilized by the Department of Defense (DoD) for propaganda purposes. Indeed, the Pentagon budget is extravagant compared to that of the Department of State on whose prerogatives the DoD has been worming in for the past 7 years.
In 2010, the Defense Secretary had asked Congress for nearly one billion dollars for "strategic communications" and "information operations". However, some effective lobbying by the (...)

New Congress leaders promote "clash of civilizations"

17 January 2011
The Arab-American Institute (chaired by James Zogby) published a report providing insight into the new leaders who have taken control of the House of Representatives. The majority would appear to be Israel-firsters and rabid advocates of the "clash of civilizations". Thus, we are witnessing a radicalization of Congress reminiscent of what occurred in 1995 and which led to the remilitarization of the United States and the Kosovo war.
===
Analysis of Select New Leadership of the 112th (...)

Iraq: Fallujah children with birth defects

4 January 2011
The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has published a study on the upsurge of birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq. A 15% increase has been recorded during the war period.
The study, which was conducted on a limited sample of polygamous families, highlighted in particular a high incidence of heart and neural tube malformations.
The Journal decided to release the study to exchange the data collected with other researchers working on war-associated contamination. (...)

A selection by {Voltaire Network}

Reports Monitor # 2010-03

25 April 2010
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: Searching for Political Agreement (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
CENTRAL ASIA
Central Asia’s Security: Issues and Implications for US Interests (US Congressional Research Service)
CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS
Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa (John Templeton Foundation)
CUBA
Cuba: Military’s Profile in State Media Limited, Positive (US Director of National (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2010-02

18 March 2010
ABKHAZIA
Abkhazia: Deepening Dependence (International Crisis Group)
ANGOLA
The Oil Factor in Sino–Angolan Relations at the Start of the 21st Century (South African Institute of International Affairs)
ARCTIC
Strategic Importance of the Arctic in U.S. Policy (Senate, USA)
ASIA
The Mekong: river under threat (Lowry Institute)
BANGLADESH
The Threat from Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (International Crisis Group)
CHILE
Conjugando estrategia nacional y política local en (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2010-01

13 February 2010
AFGHANISTAN
The Northern Distribution Network and Afghanistan (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
Paying for the Troop Escalation in Afghanistan. Ten Ways to Cut Baseline Defense Spending to Fight this War within Our Means (Center for American Progress)
Afghanistan, 1979-2009: In the Grip of Conflict (Middle East Institute)
Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010 (UN Office on Drugs and Crime)
AFRICA
Regional Conflicts and International Engagement on the Horn of Africa (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-12

28 November 2009
AFRICA
Enhancing the Governance of Africa’s Oil Sector (South Africa Institute of International Affairs)
Forest Governance in Africa (South Africa Institute of International Affairs)
ASIA
China and India: rivals always, partners sometimes (European Council on Foreign Relations)
CHINA
Profile of ’Radical’ Hong Kong Legislator Raymond Wong Yuk-man (US Director of National Intelligence)
Energy and Geopolitics in China (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
The People’s (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-11

25 October 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium (UN Office on Drugs and Crime).
Afghanistan’s hard summer: The impact on European troop contributing nations (Finnish Institute of International Affairs)
AFRICA
China and Africa’s Natural Resources: The Challenges and Implications for Development and Governance (South Africa Institute of International Affairs)
BOSTWANA
China’s Role in Infrastructure Development in Botswana (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-10

21 September 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan’s Narco War: breaking the link between drug traffickers and insurgents (US Congress)
How Opium Profits the Taliban (United States Institute of Peace)
Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (US Congressional Research Service)
AUSTRALIA
Courted by Europe? Advancing Australia’s relations with the European Union in the new security environment (Parliament of Australia)
BOSNIA AND (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-09

2 August 2009
ABKHAZIA
Abkhazia (Caucasus Analytical Digest)
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan : Un chemin pour la paix (France, Assemblée nationale)
Afghanistan: Government Formation and Performance (US Congressional Research Service)
Global Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan (UK House of Commons)
AUSTRALIA
Australasian anxieties: how Winston Churchill shaped Australia’s relations with Britain, Japan and the United States for six decades (Lowy Institute) (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-08

27 June 2009
AUSTRALIA
Australia and Japan: Going global (Lowy Institute)
BANGLADESH
The Roots of Bangladeshi National Identity: Their Impact on State Behaviour (Institute of South Asian Studies)
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
Islamist Radicalisation: The Challenge for Euro-Mediterranean Relations (Center for European Policy Studies)
CHINA
The Tibetan ‘Uprising’ 2008: India’s Response (Institute of South Asian Studies)
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica: Background and U.S. Relations (US Congressional Research (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-07

2 June 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Winning in Afghanistan. Creating Effective Afghan Security Forces (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
The Long March: Building an Afghan National Army (Rand Corporation)
La guerre en Afghanistan : quelle stratégie pour l’Europe ? (Union de l’Europe Occidentale)
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s foreign debt—data and trends (Australian Parliament)
CENTRAL ASIA
Challenges and Opportunities for the Obama Administration in Central Asia (US Army War College) (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-06

14 May 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE
The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (Australian Parliament)
Towards a new climate regime? Views of China, India, Japan, Russia and the United States in the road to Copenhagen (Finnish Institute of International Affairs)
CUBA
Cuban Leadership Overview (US Director of National Intelligence)
Options for Engagement. A Resource Guide for Reforming U.S. Policy toward Cuba (Lexington Institute)
DEFENSE
Cell Wars: The Changing Landscape of Communications (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-05

19 April 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Reconciling With the Taliban?: Toward an Alternative Grand Strategy in Afghanistan (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
State Building and Stabilisation in Afghanistan: Design Constraints to Effectiveness (Institute of South Asian Studies)
BRAZIL
Brazil in the Global Economy: Measuring the Gains From Trade (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
CHAD
Tchad: la poudrière de l’Est (International Crisis Group)
CHINA
China-U.S. Relations: Current Issues (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-04

2 April 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Arbitrary Detention in Afghanistan — Volume 1 (United Nations)
Arbitrary Detention in Afghanistan — Volume 2 (United Nations)
Shaping Europe’s Afghan Surge (European Council on Foreign Relations)
ASIA
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2009 (United Nations)
CHINA
China’s Capacity to Manage Infectious Diseases (Center for Strategic and International Studies) NB this report is endorsed by Chas (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-03

15 March 2009
AFRICA
State of the African Cities 2008 (United Nations Habitat) [61 Mo]
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s Diplomatic Deficit. Reinvesting in our instruments of international policy (Lowy Institute)
CHINA
Chinese Soft Power and Its Implications for the United States (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
Swimming Against the Tide: How Developing Countries Are Coping with the Global Crisis (World Bank)
The Financial Crisis: Impact on and Response by the (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-02

1 March 2009
CAUCASUS
Provocation, Deception, Entrapment: The Russo-Georgian Five Day War (UK Defense Academy)
The Impact of the Russia-Georgia War on the South Caucasus Transportation Corridor (Jamestown Foundation)
CENTRAL ASIA
Russia, China, and the United States in Central Asia: Prospects for Great Power Competition and Cooperation in the Shadow of the Georgian Crisis (US Army War College)
CHINA/TAIWAN
Smart Power in U.S.-China Relations (Center for Strategic and International Studies) (...)

A selection by the Voltaire Network

Reports Monitor # 2009-01

15 February 2009
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan : Japan’s Experiences Revisited (Japan Institute of International Affairs)
AUSTRALIA
Ambition: The Emerging Foreign Policy of the Rudd Governement (Lowy Institute)
BRAZIL
Brazil-US Relations (US Congressional Research Service)
CAMBODGIA
Documents du procés des dirigeants Khmers rouges (Chambres extraordinaires au sein des Tribunaux cambodgiens)
CHINA
China’s Expanding Peacekeeping Role (Stockholm International Peace Research (...)

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