Geopolitical Monitor - Backgrounders - In-depth Geopolitical Analysis on Geopolitical Issues in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East

Backgrounder

On July 7, 2005, the date commonly known as 7/7, three tube trains in the London underground and one double-decker bus experienced near-simultaneous explosions. The official line was that the four suicide bombers boarded each of the trains and bus with a mission to bring an “Islamic jihad” to Britain. However, there is much to this story that falters under careful analysis, and the motive, means and reaction point to British intelligence involvement.

Backgrounder

This report is about American and British involvement in the Afghan drug trade in opium, focusing on the history of such involvement, and the nature of the drug trade since the 2001 occupation of Afghanistan. Today, Afghanistan supplies more than 90 per cent of the world's illicit opium, from which heroin is made. So who’s profiting from the trade?

Backgrounder

This report examines the current war and genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which started in the mid-1990s, placing emphasis on the roles of Western covert operations, corporations and the plundering of resources that has resulted. 

Backgrounder

This report examines the Rwandan genocide in a geopolitical context including the roles of Western powers, multinational corporations and International Financial Institutions.

Backgrounder

Since the early 1990s, the United States government has been operating a program to forcibly seize suspected terrorists in foreign countries and transfer them to a 3rd state without the knowledge or consent of the host country. This practice is known as extraordinary rendition.

Backgrounder

Fueled by the Cold War and transnational corporate interests, the U.S. has covertly tinkered with the governments of Latin American countries since World War 2, producing an extremely violent and unstable political climate. This history gives context to the growing anti-Americanism in Latin America, most visibly illustrated in the open defiance of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales to US policy. It also gives context to the recent trend in Latin America to elect left-wing governments.

Backgrounder

This Article provides a contemporary overview of the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the detainment camps it operates throughout the United States and its powers during a declared state of emergency. It is intended to provide context to the claims that there are plans to use the camps to unconstitutionally hold American citizens.

Backgrounder

There has been much discussion of further North American integration under a ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership’ between Canada, The United States and Mexico. Business think tanks campaign for harmonized policies, citizens groups call for public consultation and warn of a secret agenda while politicians publicly seem to do little at all. This article is a primer on the issue of North American integration.