Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer, Editor in Chief

Mitchell Belfer Mitchell Belfer is Senior Lecturer at the Department of International Relations and European Studies and Editor in Chief of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS). He holds a Ph.D. and an MPA in International Relations Theory and his academic interests gravitate around: alliance theory, small states, dangerous regions, the international relations of the Arabian Gulf and Middle East, asymmetrical violence and general security-related issues. What began as a strictly alliance-centric focus has morphed into a multi-layered understanding of alliances that investigates the manner in which an alliance’s major to minor and its minor to minor dyads within the alliance behave to one another.
Contact email: belfer@cejiss.org

Selected Publications by Mitchell Belfer

Editor's Desk

By Mitchell Belfer

The Road to Tehran Runs Through Europe

Three months since withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the United States has begun to reimpose heavy sanctions on Iran. To the dismay of many in Europe, especially in Brussels, France, Germany and the UK, President Trump announced that it will be impossible for companies, and countries, to maintain economic relations with both the US and Iran—they have to choose. Armies of lawyers have sprung into action. They are exploring legal loopholes, waivers, constructing…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

The European Parliament’s Resolutionary War

With Europe tying itself in knots over the twin problems of Brexit and the cresting wave of populism, EU foreign affairs are undoubtedly playing second fiddle to internal matters at preset. The danger of such a state of affairs is that important gains made in democratizing foreign policy are squandered. And that the vacuum is filled by an assortment of narrow interests that do not necessarily reflect wider European values or strategic interests. Concerns over a democratic deficit in foreign…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

Understanding the Yemen Tragedy through Iranian Behaviour

The ebbing war against Daesh may preoccupy European security thinking, but it is the triple tragedy unfolding in Yemen — the humanitarian tragedy, the socio-economic tragedy and the geopolitical tragedy — that contains the potential to unwind what is left of the Middle Eastern order. Located along the strategic south-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Strait of Mandeb straddles the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, and heading northward towards the Nejaz, Yemen is cursed by its…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

Rein in Qatar. Gulf unity is at stake

Analysts of the Arab Gulf region have, for the past week or so, been obsessing over the deterioration of relations within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). And for good reason. Qatar stands accused of pursuing some very damaging policies—policies that undermine GCC international projects, generate suspicion of the Arab Gulf internationally and are greeted with outright hostility in other parts of the Arab world. Consider that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and…

Haaretz

Editor's Desk

Mitchell A. Belfer

Is Netanyahu Facing an Israeli Spring Moment?

With Middle East politics again ablaze, it is easy for pundits to miss the huge controversy brewing around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he struggles to keep his composure under the weight of unfriendly allegations.It is easy; but it is wrong. With Israel’s Channel 2 reporting, back in early September, of an inquiry into claims that Netanyahu had solicited a bribe, something which he vehemently denies, this may be the trigger Israel needs to galvanize people against political…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell A. Belfer

Foreign Investors Must Not Exploit Weak Regulation In Europe

This summer US regulators released a detailed list of reforms it believes will make markets function better and more efficiently. The reforms by the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation is aimed at restoring public confidence in the Stock Market. The high level panel contains industry heavyweights ranging from Wall Street executives, hedge fund CEOs, individuals such as Kenneth Bentsen Jr., head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and representatives of trading…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

If Not Now, When? Reviewing Europe’s Failures, One Country at a Time

From terrorism to corruption, war, economic crises and the return of extremist political parties, the past years have been trying for the EU on the social, political and economic fronts. BREXIT may have been the first rejection of membership—it is unlikely to be the last. To avoid the complete unwinding of the European project it is important to recalibrate the essence of the Union; to find and expose its weakest points – and members – and work at building a Europe that is reflective of the…

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Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

Iran: The Other Islamic State

Many in the US are jostling to enter Iran’s marketplace as though acquiescence to international demands for nuclear transparency equated to political and economic reform. It did not. The Islamic Republic of Iran remains an Islamic state and a danger to regional stability. Caution is enjoined in any transaction with the country.   Ayatollah means the ‘sign of God,’ Hezbollah the ‘party of God,’ and Hokumat-e eslami means ‘Islamic government.’ These are not rhetorical devices in the parlance of…

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Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

The War in Yemen

The wider Middle East is caving under the pressure of multiple conflict-points and the effects are being acutely felt in Europe. The Charlie Hebdo and small arms terrorist attacks in Paris, an unfolding immigration and mounting socio-economic crises are reminders of the deep intersection of European and Middle Eastern spaces, interests and peoples. With the Syria-Iraq-ISIS conflict set as the highest priority among EU and NATO members, one of the central lynchpins of local and regional…

2018 - Volume 12, Issue 3

Schengen in Crisis? Why Subjective Critique Matters

Recently, predictions about the potential end of Schengen cooperation have multiplied. The extraordinary number of refugees coming into the EU is generally understood as the root of the problems within Schengen because the external borders were not prepared to manage such a strain. At the same time…

Recalibration of Turkish Foreign Policy During AKP Era

Since the Justice and Development Party came to power, Turkey has taken another direction in the international scene, based primarily on the ideas of Ahmet Davutoglu, architect of Turkish foreign policy. Different from Turkey's conduct during the Cold War, Davutoglu developed a new foreign policy…

Identifying the Continuity Patterns in the Contemporary U.S.…

The article is aimed at analysing the U.S. contemporary defence and military planning from the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), developed in the 1990s and consolidated during the War on Terror, to the Third Offset Strategy that will guide the Pentagon’s efforts until 2030. It will be argued…

Central Europe on Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Positions and…

The article analyses the positions of the Visegrad Group and the Baltic countries on the Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted in 2014. The public discourse about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is affected by the following main factors in these countries: historical heritage, concern for their own…

The IS and Attacks on the Oil and Gas Sector in Iraq

Attacks on energy sectors are an important part of the strategy of Islamist militant and terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda and its offshoots or the Taliban. In connection with this, this article focuses on the attitude of the global Islamist terrorist group the Islamic State (IS) with regard…

For the World, for Me or for Us? The European Development Aid…

Whereas poverty eradication is the primary official purpose of development aid disbursed by the EU, an analysis of official development assistance (ODA) flows between 1995 and 2014 suggests that recipients’ needs are even less salient for aid by the EU than for the bilateral aid dispersed by its…