Andrew D. Bishop

Pakistan's military-controlled Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been known for maintaining ties with some of South Asia's most ruthless terrorist groups. Most recently, it has been argued that the ISI could have indirectly been behind India's deadly Mumbai attacks, leading New Delhi to pressure Islamabad to reform its controversial intelligence agency. Such reform would be in the United States' best interest, not only for obvious moral reasons but also to avoid a costly confrontation between two of Washington's key allies. Yet it appears few in Pakistan are truly pushing for a full clean-up of the ISI's historical networks; an observation that is particularly troubling if one considers the fact that many Pakistanis, too, have been terror targets in the past few years.

A couple of weeks ago, a prank Bloomberg wire went around the internet claiming Somali pirates had decided to buyout Citigroup. It provoked laughs. But given the amount of cash these sea bandits have acquired over the past year, is the idea really so absurd?

Roger Middleton, the author of a recent report on piracy in the Horn of Africa for the Chatham House think tank, estimates that pirates could have made as much as US$30 million to US$50 million since January 2008 alone. Each new ransom, he says, adds between half a million and two million more dollars to their coffers. That’s quite a sum. But what is it used for?

On December 2-3, NATO foreign ministers will once again consider the Ukrainian government’s bid for a Membership Action Plan (MAP), the main precondition for entering the North Atlantic Alliance. Though Western policymakers remain divided over whether Kiev should be allowed to join at the risk of further arousing Russia, most say the Ukrainian people should have the right to “make choices about their own future” at all cost. Recent polls, however, show that in fact a majority of the country’s population is strongly opposed to the prospect of joining NATO: a puzzling revelation to work with.

"We are opening our door to France, and are inviting it to take advantage of the opportunity we are offering it. It would be as much your interest as ours."

This quote, recounted by journalist Chris Kutschera in his Black Book of Saddam Hussein, is one that could well be attributed to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who just a few months ago invited French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to provide his country with "high quality military equipment."

Yet, the open-ended offer is one that was in fact extended by Saddam to then French prime minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas in June 1972, over three decades ago.

Nothing better than this quid pro quo can convey the permanence of mutual interests in the close relations Paris and Baghdad have enjoyed ever since the early days of the Baath regime. France was in Iraq from the start, and now that its dictatorial partner has gone, it seems poised to take another run at living up to the war-torn country's expectations.

What is France doing in Afghanistan? That is the question French parliamentarians will try to answer next week as they gather to vote on their country's continued involvement in the failed South Asian state.

Because the French right-wing - which notably includes Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) - currently dominates the country's political landscape, its quasi-unanimous desire to stay on track in Afghanistan is sure to remain almost unquestionably safeguarded in the upcoming vote.

Nevertheless, the fact that France's presence in Afghanistan will likely be prolonged for the next few months does not preclude the reality that the US might care to watch the French situation carefully, for it has all the attributes of a warning salvo.

Indeed, with major elections coming up in two other leading ISAF contributing countries - namely Germany and the UK - the debate over NATO's mission in Afghanistan could spread through a well-known domino-effect of psychological dithering, if it hasn't already.

Angola votes on September 5 for the first time since 1992 and particularly since its civil war ended in 2002. The ruling MPLA is likely to win most of the parliament's seats, but the question is rather by how much and under what circumstances. Human Rights Watch has called the campaign "unfair", yet most analysts say the country is not facing the same kinds of abuses recently seen in Zimbabwe or Kenya.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy made a long-awaited visit to Damascus on September 3-4 in his attempt to "bring Syria in from the cold" where Washington has been keeping it for years. The Elysée Palace would love to serve as a mediator in Bashar al-Assad's regional negotiations, but if that doesn't work out, Sarkozy will happily settle for economic gains.