Eurasia

Rumors began swirling last fall that al-Qaida chieftain Ayman al-Zawahiri had died of natural causes. With no confirmation, counterterrorism analysts and long-time al-Qaida watchers weighed in with various assessments of what it would mean for the terrorist organization if it had indeed lost its leader. Just last week, al-Qaida’s official …

For more than three months, Turkey has been rocked by rolling protests centered in Istanbul. Following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s controversial appointment of businessman Melih Bulu as the new rector of Bogazici University in January, students and professors began holding rallies to denounce the pick. They see Bulu as an …

Michael O’Hanlon argues that to reduce tension with Russia, the United States should pursue a new security architecture for Europe whose core concept is “permanent non-alignment for countries of eastern Europe.” This piece originally appeared in USA Today. Four months into his term in office, President Joe Biden needs a …

The April 29 resolution passed by the European Parliament on excluding Russia from the SWIFT international payment system should its troops invade Ukraine may be legally nonbinding, but it did not go unnoticed by the Kremlin. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a potential cutoff was a serious threat, and that …

The Department of Defense released the Military Intelligence Program (MIP) top line budget request for Fiscal Year 2022. The total is $23.3 billion and is aligned to strategic priorities of the Secretary of Defense. The department determined that releasing this top line figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within …

In his message of greetings to participants, organizers and guests of the 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF’21) that opens on June 2-5, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Moscow is interested in closer economic, scientific, and technical cooperation with its foreign partners and ready to share experience in …

NATO Foreign Ministers met on Tuesday to prepare for the NATO Summit on 14 June. “Ministers addressed a range of issues including Afghanistan, Belarus, Russia and China; and overall, the need for NATO to adapt to a new era of growing global competition,” said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We are …

Agency was revealing on this point, though it merely confirmed centuries of understanding in politics: In our friends and foes, we mistrust. Having spilled such valuable beans, Snowden readied us for what should have been regarded as banal, even farcical. As Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists summarised, …

The lack of serious analysis of great power competition within Russia is due in large part to the baggage that Russian officials bring to any discussion of the country’s place in the post–Cold War world. All too often, debate in both policy and analytical circles is guided by long-standing grievances, …

Russia’s strategy in the Mediterranean is an integral part of its strategy for the wider European theater, which has long been the principal arena of its foreign policy triumphs and setbacks. Europe’s dominant position on Russia’s foreign policy agenda is a product of its strategic culture, which is in turn …