WORLD ROUNDUPThe Sahel & World’s Terrorism | America Should Destroy North Korean ICBMs | China’s Plan to Break the International Liberal World, and more

Published 20 March 2023

·  Why America Should Destroy North Korean ICBMs Fired into the Pacific Ocean
How to undermine the Kim family’s efforts to demonstrate its power to both internal and external audiences

·  China, Tianxia, and the Plan to Break the International Liberal World
The world stands at a paradigm shift

·  Nigeria Rival Jihadists Locked in Deadly Infighting
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group is challenging Boko Haram

·  The Sahel Now Accounts for Nearly Half the World’s Terrorism
Saharan Africa has replaced the Middle East as the epicenter of global terror

·  319 German Soldiers Suspected of Right-Wing Extremism: Ombudsman
Extremism remains problem in armed forces despite decrease in incidents last year

·  The Bloody Toll of Russia’s War in Ukraine
Credible estimates show that the conflict has been Russia’s most deadly since World War II

·  Remembering the Iraq War: Has Washington Really Learned the Lessons?
Unless lessons from the Iraq War are fully understood and retained, the United States runs the risk of blundering again

·  A Year After Germany’s “Sea Change,” Policy Change Remains Elusive
Germany still sends less assistance to Ukraine on a per capita basis than countries lacking its economic might

Why America Should Destroy North Korean ICBMs Fired Into The Pacific Ocean  (Bruce Bennett, 1945)
Realistic or not, Kim Yo-jong is trying to create a situation in which North Korea can show off an ICBM without U.S. interference. But were the U.S. to intercept and destroy it, that would seriously undermine the Kim family’s efforts to demonstrate its power to both internal and external audiences.

China, Tianxia, and the Plan to Break the International Liberal World  (Brian Patrick Bolger, National Interest)
Modern China is resurrecting this dynasty of tributary taxation, through economic dependence, soft loans, and creating a Chinese diaspora throughout Asia and Africa

Nigeria Rival Jihadists Locked in Deadly Infighting  (AFP / Barron’s)
Two jihadist groups have for weeks been engaged in deadly clashes in their northeast Nigeria strongholds according to security sources and residents, who said hundreds of fighters had died. Boko Haram militants have been fighting government troops for almost 14 years in a bid to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region. But they have also been fighting against rival jihadists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, who emerged in 2016. Clashes initially started over ideological differences, with ISWAP objecting to Boko Haram’s indiscriminate killings of Muslims.

The Sahel Now Accounts for Nearly Half the World’s Terrorism  (Bob Lownie, Unherd)
The Sahel region in Sub-Saharan Africa is now the epicenter of terrorism worldwide, constituting nearly half (43%) of the global death toll, according to the latest edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). Up from 1% of the global total in 2007, incidents in the Sahel have increased by over 2000% in the last 16 years. As of this year, it accounts for more terror fatalities than South Asia and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) combined, with the latter region experiencing a 32% fall this year — its lowest figure since 2013. (Cont.)