conflict

Germany has had to rethink its relations with its European partners twice in four years: in 2010, when the sovereign debt crisis hit the euro area - and following the winter of 2013/14, when Ukraine's westward course triggered a conflict with Russia.

Abstract
The invasion of Iraq in 2003 inaugurated a new phase, marked by fierce sectarian division, which strongly questioned the pillars on which the Iraqi ‘national’ community was built. Examining the dynamics and factors that led to these consequences will help us to understand these events within their historical context rather than viewing them as part of an endless phenomenon. The so-called ‘sectarian conflict’ in Iraq was not ‘sectarian’ because rooted only in different religious doctrines. It was a clash largely shaped along sectarian lines because of the lack of inter-communal communication and effective means of mediation. The paper focuses on the internal dynamics that led to heightened sectarianism in Iraq, starting with the historical background of political sectarianism in the first part, followed by inter-communal relations in post-2003 Iraq in the second part and concluding in the third part with recent dynamics.
Harith Hasan Al-Qarawee, Contributor to al-Monitor and Foreign Affairs and author of Imagining the Nation: Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-political Conflict in Iraq

Apollinaire Muholongu Malumalu is a Catholic priest, a professor of Political Science at the Catholic University of Graben in Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Managing Director of the School of Electoral Training in Central Africa. He is also the President of the European Centre for Electoral Support based in Brussels. Malumalu was appointed by the DRC Bishops as the Director of Cardinal Martino Pan-African Institute for Social Doctrine of the Church in Kinshasa, founded by the Episcopal Commission Justice and peace.

How would you evaluate the Italian involvement and presence in Africa? Are the Italian business interests influencing its presence in the continent?