mircea

Al-Qaeda’s top man in Yemen captured last year, UN reveals

Khalid Batarfi was reportedly handed over to Saudi authorities in the latest hammer blow to the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The head of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, Khalid Batarfi, was captured in the country’s eastern Mahra governorate in October, according to a new United Nations report.

Read More »

With New START Extended, What Is Future of US-Russian Arms Control?

Not so long ago, as the U.S. prepared to withdraw from the INF Treaty after 30-plus years over Russia’s alleged violations of that accord, the future of nuclear arms control in general and U.S.-Russian arms control in particular looked so dim that we at Russia Matters asked leading experts whether …

Read More »

The Russian Military’s Lessons Learned in Syria

The Russian military identifies its deployment to Syria as the prototypical example of future war—an expeditionary deployment to support a coalition-based hybrid war. The Russian General Staff cites Syria as highlighting the need for Russia to develop a new military capability—deploying flexible expeditionary forces to carry out “limited actions” abroad. …

Read More »

The Russian Military Police, from Syria to Karabakh

Following the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement signed in Moscow on November 9, 2020, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that units of the Military Police (MP) will be part of Russian peacekeeping in the South Caucasus for an initial period of five years. The deployment of the MP …

Read More »

Opinion: To compete with China and Russia, the U.S. military must redefine ‘readiness’

The Defense Department’s 2018 National Defense Strategy was blunt in its assessment of America’s eroding strategic advantages: The U.S. military no longer enjoyed global primacy, and to remain competitive, needed to make fundamental changes. Namely, it must build a more lethal and modern force; strengthen international alliances and partnerships; and …

Read More »

How will the Iran-Israel confrontation play out in Syria?

The two powers have conflicting interests in the Syrian war, but regional powers are not keen on a broader military clash Naftali Bennett, Israel’s outgoing defence minister, said last month that Iran had begun withdrawing its forces from Syria and urged his successor, Benny Gantz, to maintain pressure on Tehran. …

Read More »