Yearly Archives: 2020

Syrian desert | Over 100 regime soldiers and ISIS members killed in attrition battles since early December

Military operations are still underway in scattered areas of the Syrian desert, as ISIS tries to inflect heavy human and material losses on regime forces through ambushes, explosions and surprise attacks. These military operations are concentrated in Aleppo-Hama-Al-Raqqah triangle, while fighting subsides in the deserts of Al-Raqqah, Homs and Deir …

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Russia is using Erdogan’s threats to blackmail Kurds

The strategic town of Ain Issa that controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and well-known as the political capital of the Kurdish autonomous administration, has recently become the centre of tensions. Aiming to take advantage of the US presidential transitional period, Turkey. Kurds has increased its attacks in the …

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Pakistani Politics Roiled by Familiar Triangle: Military, Government, Opposition

A combustible mixture of political unrest, stalled governance and military meddling await the incoming Biden administration. Political uncertainty has descended on Pakistan as the combined opposition, seeking to dislodge the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has gathered under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). While the conflict …

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Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran: What’s Ahead for the Biden Administration?

Of all the pressing issues in the volatile Middle East—wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya, unstable Iraq, imploding Lebanon, and the 10,000 ISIS fighters and other al-Qaida franchises still on the loose—the most pressing for President-elect Joe Biden will be Iran’s controversial nuclear program. He has repeatedly promised to rejoin …

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Nigeria's Security Failures: The Link Between EndSARS and Boko Haram

At first glance, the October killings of protesters by security forces in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, seem to have little in common with the November Boko Haram massacre of at least 43 farmers in Nigeria’s northeast, or the December 11 abduction of hundreds of school students in Katsina State. With …

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China’s Influence on Conflict Dynamics in South Asia

China has embarked on a grand journey west. Officials in Beijing are driven by aspirations of leadership across their home continent of Asia, feelings of being hemmed in on their eastern flank by U.S. alliances, and their perception that opportunities await across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean. Along the way, …

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China’s Military Actions Against Taiwan in 2021: What to Expect

Following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, many observers asserted that China-U.S. relations, what have been strained most of the time over the past three years, will see a change, most likely for the better. Judging from the moves taken by the militaries of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait …

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