To view the cyberattacks on Hillary Clinton's presidential election campaign as a unique offence as many Americans seem to do is to miss the full picture, Brian Stewart writes.

The campaign to free Mosul from ISIS is one for the books a tactical nightmare placed on top of an active political volcano.

Just over two months after the failed coup in Turkey, President Recep Erdogan's relentless purges of many layers of society are putting the country's fragile democracy under extraordinary strain.

Its one of the grimmest ironies of war in Iraq: The advance of ISIS two years ago terrified foreign governments, but the steady retreat of the same jihadist group now makes diplomats nervous about whats next.

The tension flare-ups just keep coming in the armed confrontation between Ukraine and Russia and now the military buildup at the borders has reached the most dangerous level in two years, Brian Stewart writes.

It's not surprising the Liberal government is having a difficult time deciding where and how best to fulfil its election pledge to lead Canada back into significant peacekeeping there is simply no shortage of potentially life-or-death factors to consider.

In all the drama of the failed coup attempt, there could be no doubt this partial military uprising will be a brutal setback for Turkey and for already slim hopes for stability in the Middle East.