Eurasia

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks did not happen out of the blue. They were preceded by years of bitter conflict, ever since the group consolidated its control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Months later, it remains deeply puzzling how Israel was caught so woefully unprepared. Conventional explanations advanced over the …

Western Europeans have always held NATO’s top job. It’s time to pass the baton eastward, where governments understand the scale of the threats facing the region and the transatlantic alliance. It’s head-hunting season again! It didn’t take much for Ursula von der Leyen to be nominated by her conservative Christian …

Israel has emerged as Azerbaijan’s top oil purchaser, solidifying an alliance that transcends mere economic transactions. In January 2024, amidst the backdrop of the Munich Security Conference, it was revealed that Israel leads the list of countries importing oil from Azerbaijan, purchasing a substantial 523.5 thousand tons valued at approximately …

Conflicting ethnically-based commemorations of the 1990s wars mean that even though the fighting ended decades ago, the past continues to burden the present and affect former Yugoslav countries’ futures, an expert report argues. In post-Yugoslav countries, there are often conflicting narratives surrounding events from the 1990s wars, which instead of …

In pursuing trial after trial for war crimes committed by Russian forces, Ukraine is failing to put the victims at the heart of a much-needed transitional justice strategy. To see the result of such an approach, Kyiv need only look at Bosnia and Herzegovina. The entrance to the cemetery in …

A decade after it was opened, Bulgaria’s biggest asylum centre, in Harmanli, is a crowded, sometimes violent, and – according to many accounts – squalid place, emblematic of the rot at the heart of Europe’s asylum policy. Harmanli was built on tobacco, but it really grew under communism with the …

A visit by the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force to Baghdad has led to a pause in attacks on U.S. troops by Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, multiple Iranian and Iraqi sources told Reuters.Here’s a look at Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite parties and armed groups, who remain divided over how …

Iranian sources told Reuters on February 21 that Iran provided hundreds of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) to Russia in early January.[i] The three unspecified Iranian sources said that Iran provided roughly 400 SRBMs to Russia, including the Fateh-110 and the Zolfaghar. The sources said that Iran has sent at least …

Ukraine says Russian troops are being trained on the use of Iranian drones at the Shayrat airfield in Syria’s western province of Homs. At the same time, Syria has extended permission for the United Nations to deliver aid to opposition-held areas in the northwest of the country via two Turkish …

17 members of the Syrian regime forces were killed in a series of attacks by ISIS cells on separate locations in the Syrian desert within 72 hours, bringing the death toll of the regime and its loyal militias to 90 since the beginning of 2024. According to the Syrian Observatory …