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U.S. Army War College: The Effectiveness Of Drone Strikes In Counterinsurgency And Counterterrorism Campaigns

"While drones have attracted considerable attention, we know little about how effective they are as tools of punishment and deterrence. In particular, it is not clear how, if at all, drones differ from other technologies of violence, what experience with broadly similar technologies in past conflicts suggests will be the likely consequences of drone strikes, and what systematic analysis of the available evidence suggests about the effects of the drone campaigns. This monograph seeks to address these open questions."

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Human Rights Watch: Between A Drone And Al-Qaeda

"Should the United States continue targeted killings in Yemen without addressing the consequences of killing civilians and taking responsibility for unlawful deaths, it risks further angering many Yemenis and handing another recruiting card to AQAP."

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Amnesty International: Will I Be Next? U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan

"The cases in this report raise serious concerns that the USA has unlawfully killed people in drone strikes, and that such killings may amount in some cases to extrajudicial executions or war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. Like other forces operating in the Tribal Areas, the USA appears to be exploiting the lawless and remote nature of the region to evade accountability for its violations."

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Audio

Media Call on U.S.-Pakistan Relations

Ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting with Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday, October 23, CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey and former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter discussed U.S.-Pakistan relations on a media call on October 22.

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Op-Ed

Biological Attack

Author: Laurie Garrett
ForeignPolicy.com

Laurie Garrett examines the recent reports of two polio cases in Syria, which has not reported a case since 1999, and explains why polio is coming back from the brink of eradication.

See more in Syria; Diseases, Infectious

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New York Times: Lobbying Bonanza As Firms Try To Influence European Union

Authors: Eric Lipton and Danny Hakim

"As the European Union has emerged as a regulatory superpower affecting 28 countries that collectively form the world's largest economy, its policies have become ever more important to corporations operating across borders. In turn, the influence business in Brussels has become ever larger and more competitive, rivaled only by Washington's."

See more in Europe; Political Movements and Protests

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Bloomberg: Treasuries Lose Cachet On Lowest Foreign Demand Since '01

Author: Daniel Kruger

"America's borrowing costs are on the cusp of exceeding the rest of the world for the first time since 2010 after a political stalemate over public funding triggered a 16-day government shutdown and jeopardized the nation's ability to pay its debt. Yields on Treasuries, which averaged less than 1 percent as recently as May, are now within 0.2 percentage point of the 1.57 percent for sovereign debt outside the U.S., according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes."


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Financial Times: Watch Out for the Rise of a European Tea Party

Author: Gideon Rachman

"Next year's elections to the European parliament also look like a possible breakthrough moment for a European Tea Party. The parliament has traditionally been the most federalist institution in Europe, acting as a lobby group for the transfer of more powers to Brussels. But next May's elections are likely to show a surge in votes for eurosceptic parties across the continent."

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Ask CFR Experts

What role will counterinsurgency operations play in future conflicts?

Asked by Justin McDowell, from Minnesota State University Moorhead

Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations will continue to be a viable option in future conflicts, particularly given rising instability in areas of interest to the United States and its allies. However, the relative feasibility and ability to support large COIN operations is very much in question.

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