STRATFOR in the News

Due to its unrivaled analysis and accurate forecasts, STRATFOR frequently serves as a source for the media - and continues to provide daily intelligence updates and expert interviews for local, national and international media outlets and venues. Below is a sampling of recent or notable citations that demonstrates the depth and breadth of coverage and recognition we receive:

Igor Sechin: The Kremlin’s Oil Man
With oil prices below their high of $150 in 2008, Putin has recently suggested that Russia might reopen its markets to foreign capital and restructure its state industries. Political analysis firm STRATFOR, based in Austin, Texas, says the move could destabilize Sechin’s footing in the Kremlin.

— Forbes; November 2009

After Afghan vote, an awkward task for Obama
But Kamran Bokhari, an analyst at the Texas-based STRATFOR think-tank, argued that the Obama administration set back its own goals in Afghanistan by picking a fight with Karzai.
“There’s a world of difference between Afghanistan and other parts of the world,” Bokhari said. “Politics in Afghanistan is actually the politics of warlordism — alignments between warlords.”

— AFP; November 2009

Norway or the Highway
George Friedman of STRATFOR.com analyzes the first two questions…[E]ach of the committeemen comes from a different political party, and Friedman writes that the panel “faithfully reproduces the full spectrum of Norwegian politics”—although something tells us that that spectrum runs from left to far left.

— Selected by The Wall Street Journal as Best of the Web Today; October 2009

Where Is U.S. Foreign Policy Headed?
Even more bullish about America is George Friedman, the founder of the private intelligence agency STRATFOR and the author of “The Next 100 Years.” Remarkably, Friedman asserts that “the United States — far from being on the verge of decline — has actually just begun its ascent.” Perhaps anachronistically, Friedman argues that naval power remains pivotal, even in the 21st century. Because America controls both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it “is virtually assured of being the dominant global power.”

— The New York Times; October 2009

Pakistan Car Bomber Kills 11; Seventh Attack in Week
The more complex attacks in Pakistan show the groups “are trying to demonstrate their prowess and appear larger than life,” said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at STRATFOR, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence-consulting firm.

— Bloomberg; October 2009

How to Stay Safe in Hotels
A report released earlier this year by STRATFOR, a global intelligence company, Greenberg said, found in the eight years prior to Sept. 11, there were major attacks against 30 hotels in 15 different countries. During the eight years after Sept. 11, the number of major attacks against hotels has more than doubled: 62 attacks have occurred in 20 different countries.

— CBS News; September 2009

Iran to meet world powers, 1st talks in a year
Reva Bhalla, director of analysis at STRATFOR, a U.S.-based global intelligence firm, said those differences pitting Moscow and Beijing against other Security Council members might persist at the talks. But “if Iran doesn’t take talks seriously and miscalculates, then you have possibility of these sanctions moving forward,” with Russia and China also in favor, she said.

— Associated Press; September 2009

In-Depth Look - Sanctioning Iran
“The Iranians have done this many times before. They come down to the deadline and then they start appearing to be much more forthcoming, throwing out ideas and proposals. They always back off in the end…On the core issue of stopping the enrichment of uranium, they’re going to say no…So this is posturing on their part.” - George Friedman, CEO of STRATFOR, a global intelligence company.

— Bloomberg TV; September 2009

ANALYSIS- No Let-Up in Flight Bomb Risk, 3 Years After Plot
Prince Mohammed was not seriously hurt. But the attack revealed al Qaeda to be as innovative as ever: official Saudi media said the explosives were implanted in the bomber’s body. Alriyadh newspaper said they were hidden in his anal cavity. Scott Stewart of intelligence company STRATFOR said such a technique would likely have “a catastrophic result if employed on an aircraft, especially if it were removed from the bomber’s body and placed in a strategic location on board the aircraft.”

— Reuters; September 2009

The Next 100 Years
In due course, the geopolitical order will shift again, and the American epoch will end. Perhaps even sooner, the power of the US will wane. But not yet, and not in this century. - George Friedman, CEO and founder of STRATFOR, a global intelligence company.

— New Statesman; August 2009

Japan’s Future: “It’s Going to Be Scary”
After two decades of economic doldrums the Japanese economy is ready to hit the wall. And, the impact will likely be felt around the world. John Maudlin, president of Millennium Wave Investments, and George Friedman, CEO of global-intelligence firm STRATFOR, tells Tech Ticker, “be afraid, be very afraid.”

— Yahoo!Finance; August 2009

Cartels Recruiting Americans to Kill
“If you look at this business, it’s a dirty business. The informant that was killed was clearly a[n] operator for the Juarez cartel…this kind of twist and turn in this business is not unusual. But the fact that it’s taking place in El Paso, on US soil, should be a wake up call for all of us here in the United States,” says Fred Burton, STRATFOR’s Vice President of Counterterrorism and Corporate Security.

— CNN; August 2009

China’s Exit Strategy
According to the authoritative STRATFOR global intelligence service, Beijing was forcing banks to purchase $14.6 billion of bonds to sop up excess liquidity, one of the few blunt instruments it has to effect policy.

— Barron’s; July 2009

Stern Hu ‘likely to be deported’
In a report on security in China, the private sector intelligence group STRATFOR said Beijing was keen to dampen down the escalating row between Australia and China over the arrest of Stern Hu, the mining giant’s iron ore executive in Shanghai.

— The Times (London); July 2009

Foreign Companies Bid On Iraqi Oil Licenses
“They’re large, shallow, relatively high-quality fields with relatively high pressure,” says Peter Zeihan, vice president for strategic intelligence at STRATFOR, a global intelligence firm. “You don’t have to be an Exxon Mobil or a Royal Dutch Shell in order to work in Iraq.”

— National Public Radio; June 2009

Bolivia – missing the natural gas boat
Within its 650 pages, the new constitution is full of contradictions, even in single paragraphs. It was drafted that way to satisfy everybody from the indigenous poor majority in the western highlands to the wealthier minority in the fertile, gas-rich lowlands to the east.

“The constitution reads like a comedy club script,” according to Peter Zeihan, vice president of strategic intelligence at STRATFOR, a global intelligence company in Austin, Texas. “Everybody got everything they wanted into it.”

— Platts; June 2009

Iran’s Twitter Revolution? Maybe Not Yet
“You can get the notion that Ahmadinejad is very unpopular and that Mousavi has this groundswell of support, but we don’t have data that shows that,” says Reva Bhalla, director of analysis for Austin [Tex.]-based STRATFOR, a strategic intelligence and forecasting company. “Ahmadinejad has real support, but his supporters don’t have smartphones. There is a real risk of amplifying [one side].”

— BusinessWeek; June 2009

Newburgh 4: ‘These Guys Picked the Wrong Town’
“No city is better prepared for this kind of attack than New York,” says Fred Burton, a counterterrorism expert at STRATFOR, a global-intelligence firm. “These guys picked the wrong town to mess with.”

— TIME; May 2009

Keeping the “Money Corridor” Open
How the companies and countries of the world can avoid piracy, with Urs Dur, Lazard Capital Markets; Fred Burton, STRATFOR; George Saroglout, Tsakos Energy Navigation; and CNBC’s Erin Burnett.

— CNBC; April 2009

YouTube riddled with drug cartel videos, messages
Such videos are used to intimidate enemies and recruit members by touting “virtues” of cartel leaders, says Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for STRATFOR, a Texas-based global-intelligence company.

— USA Today; April 2009

Georgia and the Balance of Power
The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It has simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted…Whether the US and its allies can mount a coherent response has now become a central question of Western foreign policy. - Dr. George Friedman, Founder and CEO of STRATFOR, a private intelligence company.

— The New York Review of Books

Click here for a list of past media coverage