Editor’s Note “Syria’s most successful rebel alliance may have just barely avoided breaking apart,” Sam Heller writes this week. The coalition of Islamist rebel groups known as Jaish al-Fateh, or the Army of Conquest, made stunning gains against Bashar al-Assad’s regime this year, but now the prospect of fighting the Islamic State is exposing the alliance’s ideological fault lines and internal contradictions. Germany’s own spying scandal, with news that its intelligence agency was also eavesdropping on friends and allies, puts Edward Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency in a new light, Michael Cohen argues. “These latest revelations of surveillance hypocrisy are a long-overdue corrective to the media narrative about the NSA, and U.S. spying in general, created by Snowden and his band of enablers.” And in our latest feature, Bruno Binetti and Ben Raderstorf take a close look at rapid urbanization and middle class growth in Peru, explaining how the Peruvian government can leverage that new middle class to create a more developed and diversified economy. Coming up on WPR: Haiti’s presidential circus, the gulf between China and Taiwan and radicalization and separatism in Kenya’s coastal strip. Frederick Deknatel, Associate Editor WPR Articles Monday, Nov. 9, 2015 - Friday, Nov. 13, 2015 Burundi Crisis Latest Victim of Russia-West Standoff at U.N. By: Richard Gowan | Column It is hard to imagine that any crisis could do more harm to the United Nations than the Syrian war. But mass bloodshed in Burundi, whose long-brewing meltdown has become the latest victim of Russia’s diplomatic standoff with the West at the U.N., could yet achieve this unenviable feat. Good Governance Is the Only Real Way to Provide Food Security By: Johanna Mendelson Forman | Briefing Expo Milan, a World’s Fair whose central theme was feeding the planet, was more than an exercise in public diplomacy at its best. It reflected a shared concern about global food security among the participating countries and underscored how achieving food security is really about governance. Opposition Landslide in Myanmar Won’t Push the Army Out of Politics By: Joshua Kurlantzick | Briefing On Sunday, Myanmar’s people voted in their first true national elections in 25 years. Despite a landslide victory, the opposition NLD party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, still faces an extremely difficult task. It may control parliament, but the armed forces are not going to vanish. Amid Fallout of Sinai Plane Crash, Egypt Looks as Unstable as Ever By: Frederick Deknatel | Trend Lines The fallout from the likely bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has crippled the country’s long-suffering tourism industry. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi’s own legitimacy is at risk. He hitched it on restoring Egypt’s “stability,” but Egypt looks as unstable as ever. Taliban Fracture Opens Window of Opportunity for Afghanistan By: Steven Metz | Column Only a month ago, Afghanistan seemed to be spiraling toward failure. The Taliban had seized the city of Kunduz and were on the offensive elsewhere. The Afghan government showed little sign of turning things around either militarily or politically. Now out of this darkness a window has opened.   More... African Security Cooperation Suffers From Uneven Regional Integration By: The Editors | Trend Lines Last month, 5,400 troops from across Africa participated in a military exercise in South Africa, the last joint exercise before the African Standby Force becomes fully operational. In an email interview, Gilbert Khadiagala, a professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, discussed multilateral security cooperation in Africa. Neglected Risk of Russia’s Syria Intervention: Military Accidents By: Quentin Buckholz | Briefing As Russian warplanes continue to attack targets in Syria, the apparent decisiveness of Moscow’s actions has obscured an important reality: the poor readiness of Russia’s accident-prone military. That could increase the risk of an accident with significant political or military consequences. The End of the Army of Conquest? Syrian Rebel Alliance Shows Cracks By: Sam Heller | Briefing Syria’s most successful rebel alliance, known as Jaish al-Fateh or the Army of Conquest, may have just barely avoided breaking apart. The public withdrawal of one of its hard-line factions has exposed the persistent and probably unresolvable divisions among Syria’s rebels. For Gulf States, Forging National Identity Trumps Regional Integration By: Ellen Laipson | Column Since launching the GCC in 1981, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf have pursued dual and sometimes dueling objectives. Collectively the six member countries profess to share the strategic goal of regional integration. But individually, each places a high priority on forging a national identity. Growing Pains: Urbanization and Governance in Peru By: Bruno Binetti, Ben Raderstorf | Feature A rising middle class and rapid urbanization have already transformed Peru. But to leverage these trends for more economic diversity and prosperity, the government will have to rebuild trust and manage urbanization to make visible progress in improving the day-to-day lives of its citizens. Ruling Party Resignations Expose Tunisia’s Rifts By: Karina Piser | Trend Lines Tensions in Tunisia’s ruling Nidaa Tounes party came to a head Monday, when 32 of its 86 lawmakers resigned from the governing bloc in parliament. Though their resignations are unlikely to lead to a government collapse, it shows the limits of a religious-secular divide in Tunisian politics. Democracy Delayed, Domestic Uncertainty Continues to Haunt Thailand By: Prashanth Parameswaran | Briefing Nearly a year and a half since a bloodless coup brought another military junta to power in Thailand, the country remains mired in uncertainty, with its political outlook hanging in the balance and its economy deeply troubled. The promised transition back to an elected government is nowhere in sight. Socialist-Communist Alliance Spells More Instability for Portugal By: Maria Savel | Trend Lines A coalition of left-wing parties in Portugal forced the center-right minority government to resign late Tuesday, only 11 days after it took power following elections. But the unstable partnership between the Socialist party and the smaller Communist party could mean a similar fate for the next government. Spying on Friends: Germany’s BND Scandal Puts Snowden Leaks in Context By: Michael A. Cohen | Column Two years ago, revelations that the NSA had been spying on Germany’s leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, rocked the U.S-German bilateral relationship. The story doesn’t end there, though. It turns out the German intelligence agency, the BND, had been doing a great deal of its own international spying on friends and allies. As Sharing Apps Spread, Uber Becomes Global Political ‘Hot Potato’ By: Frida Ghitis | Column What global phenomenon has emerged as a pressing dilemma for politicians around the world? It’s not climate change or economic inequality. No, it’s Uber, the ride-sharing app that is spreading its disruptive technology across the planet, creating a political crisis wherever it goes in the process. U.S. Doubles Down on Failed Military Strategy in Africa By: Peter Dörrie | Briefing A recent deployment of U.S. forces to Cameroon to support operations against Boko Haram is a perfect example of U.S. military strategy in Africa and the challenges it faces. The U.S. leans heavily on enabling local forces, but that has failed to stem a rise in Islamist violence in recent years. Despite Email Scandal’s Aftermath, All Is Not Lost in Libya Talks By: Mattia Toaldo | Briefing U.N.-led negotiations in Libya have been undermined by revelations of extensive links between the outgoing U.N. mediator, Bernardino Leon, and the United Arab Emirates, which openly backs one side of the civil war. But not everything is lost, if Leon’s successor can overcome three outstanding obstacles.