Turkey Will Be Ground Zero in the Next Global Debt Crisis

(Shutterstock)

 

Turkey is a beautiful country with a rich history including Greek, Roman and Muslim influences that make it one of the most fascinating places on Earth. It is literally a bridge between East and West: The mile-long Bosporus Bridge just north of Istanbul connects Europe and Asia across the Bosporus Strait.

Turkey has been a magnet for direct foreign investment from abroad and dollar-denominated loans by international banks to local enterprises. This investment enthusiasm is understandable given Turkey’s well-educated population of 83 million and its rank as the 17th-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of just under $1 trillion.

Russia and Europe moving closer to WAR warns shock new report

Russia’s foreign policy has sparked concern across Europe [Getty]

 

RUSSIA and Europe are moving closer to all-out war, a shocking new report has warned.

The report said the erosion of arms control agreements, deployment of additional weapons and tensions over military exercises have increased the risk of an inadvertent armed clash.

The annual Munich Security Report, this year entitled ‘To The Brink – And Back?’ also cited growing pressure on nuclear disarmament treaties and ongoing security concerns in eastern and central Europe as cause for concern. 

China Ready for ‘War’ with India, holds Live-Fire Drills Near Border

Image courtesy of War on the Rocks

 

The ruling Communist Party of China has issued a stern warning to neighboring India, with which it is engaged in a bitter border dispute that has recently seen Chinese live-fire drills and media speculation of extensive Indian military casualties denied by both sides.

After accusing Indian troops of crossing over the disputed Sikkim border last month, Chinese Communist Party outlet Global Times published a commentary Tuesday urging restraint by both belligerents, but warning that China was prepared to engage India in a battle for the contested land. The piece chalked up the conflict to a greater competition for economic and political dominance between the two leading Asian powers and said that Beijing would amass troops and armaments at the border in anticipation for what could turn into an all-out war.

US admiral announces F-22 deployment to Australia and warns of South China Sea confrontation

The United States will begin operating Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor multirole fighters from northern Australia in 2017, Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, said in Sydney on 14 December.

Murphy’s Law: The Empire Prepares For War Once More

Since the end of the Cold War in 1991 there has been growing pressure from many Japanese and Japanese allies for revisions of the Japanese constitution to allow weapons exports and more cooperation on military matters with allies that Japan depends on for much of its military defense. This is because of post-World War II reforms (and reaction to the military government that got the Japanese Empire into World War II, with disastrous results) that severely restricted Japanese defense policies. The post war constitution forbade Japan from possessing offensive military forces. Thus the Japanese armed forces are called the “Self Defense Forces.” It was decades before Japan could even bring itself to build major weapons for its self-defense forces. By the late 1980s Japanese companies found that they were quite good at building quality high tech weapons. At that point, an international marketing survey indicated that, if Japan were allowed to export weapons, they would eventually capture up to 45 percent of the world tank and self-propelled artillery market, 40 percent of military electronic sales, and 60 percent of warship construction. That seemed optimistic, but there was no doubt that the Japanese could produce world class weapons. Throughout the 1990s, Japanese manufacturers produced nearly $7 billion worth of weapons a military equipment a year, just for the self-defense force.

World War 3 Update: Russia Tells US Get Ready for War

Russian military experts have threatened the United States and asked it to be prepared for World War 3 to commence soon.

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Where America is blaming Russia for the Syria conflict, Russia has accused the US of “unprecedented threats” and “borderline insolence” on Sunday. This has come following the failure of attempts of talks on the ceasefire in Syria.

China’s GF-4 satellite can be used to monitor US carriers

China will be ready to launch the Gaofen-4 satellite into space, which will be capable of tracking down every single US aircraft carrier around the globe, before the end of 2015, reports the China Youth Daily.

During the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996, in which China fired missile tests in the Taiwan Strait and drew the response of the US Navy, the PLA realized that its mission to “liberate” Taiwan could never work without defeating US aircraft carriers.

Russia Plans Second Big Military Base Near Ukrainian Border

BOGUCHAR, Russia (Reuters) – Russia is planning a second major military base near the border with Ukraine, where NATO accuses Russian troops of helping pro-Moscow separatists fight Kiev’s forces.

The new base will house 5,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry, according to public documents and people working at the site.

It is further east than one under construction in Belgorod region reported by Reuters earlier this month but still close to the border with separatist-held parts of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, where there has been heavy fighting.

Russian Defiance Could Lead To A Multipolar World

Russia’s recent defiance of the United States and NATO has convinced some analysts that we now live in a multipolar world. Sunil Dasgupta, however, isn’t so sure. For such a world to exist, India and China must side with Russia in its confrontation with the West. That’s something they remain reluctant to do, at least openly.

One of the lasting questions in post-Cold War international relations has been the enduring preponderance of the United States as the sole remaining superpower. The Realist School of thought, which was predicated in significant measure on the idea of the balance of power, failed to explain why other nations did not rise or come together to balance the United States. To explain the discrepancy, die-hard realists such as Robert Pape of the University of Chicago proposed the idea of a transitional period of ‘soft’ or ‘hidden’ balancing by countries such as Russia, China, and even Europe before a period of hard balancing returned.

Iran and Hezbollah are planning ‘imminent’ joint invasion of Israel’s northern Galilee region according to ‘high level intelligence’

This could also be the reasons for Israel’s preparations for an ‘early attack’ yesterday as it moved Iron Dome components into the region according to Israeli intelligence connected DEBKAfile.

Whether war breaks out is truly anyone’s guess, but expect ‘all hell’ to break loose if it does. That would also mean terror attacks within the United States since it’s considered the ‘great Satan’ always in support of the Jewish state. It’s said hundreds, if not thousands of terror cells within the United States are waiting for the ‘green light’. America’s borders have been porous for years, allowing for piece-by-piece transfers of dirty bombs and biological weapons possible.

 

• Israel carried out airstrike on convoy in Syria on Sunday killing 11 people
• Among them were commanders from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
• Today Israeli general warns they were likely planning attack on Galilee
• Israel moving troops to region after Tehran warned of ‘crushing response’

Senior Iranian and Hezbollah figures killed in an airstrike in Syria this weekend were likely planning an ‘imminent’ attack on Israel, security sources have claimed.

Six Iranian army chiefs died alongside five Hezbollah militants after an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at a convoy in the Golan Heights region on Sunday.

Among those killed was Iranian General Mohammed Allahdadi, as well as commander Abu Ali Tabatabai, who is known to have worked with both Hezbollah and Iran.

UK warns Argentina regarding the Falklands

Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field said it was “very sad that Argentina continues with their approach of confrontation, not cooperation.”

Argentina has become increasingly assertive over its claims to the islands that it calls the Malvinas, as well as the British-held South Georgia and South Sandwich islands. At stake are not only the islands, but also rich fishing grounds and potential undersea gas and oil reserves in the surrounding seas.

Cameron insists London will not enter negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands. He has said the people of the Falklands must decide their own future and claims Argentina has taken a colonialist approach to the islands’ residents.

Full article: UK warns Argentina regarding the Falklands (AP)