Eurasia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed treaties to begin the formal (and illegal) annexation of occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions—an area nearly the same size as Hungary. The move comes just days after staged “referendums” held at gunpoint in which the Kremlin claimed a significant …

Intelligence is all about decisions: How to allocate limited personnel and technological resources when national security is at stake, and how to convey complex information and resulting assessments to policymakers for awareness and action. The decisions are seemingly endless but are vital to producing the best analysis for key officials …

Europe and its allies are on high alert following four explosions last week along the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines. While there is still no definitive answer on who bears responsibility—though seismologists have ruled out anything other than an explosion and European Union (EU) foreign-policy chief Josep …

For all the recent talk that Russian President Vladimir Putin might use nuclear weapons to hold onto Ukrainian territory, Russia may have already begun hybrid warfare against Norway and northern Europe, especially Germany, to exploit Europe’s energy needs over the coming winter. This seems the most probable explanation for an …

On the eve of next week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the world is being confronted with a perfect storm of deepening stagflation with very high risks of a global recession and financial crises. The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine have …

Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pomp-filled ceremony in a gilded Kremlin hall to mark the illegal annexation of occupied Ukrainian territory, his counterpart in Kyiv responded with his own bold gamble: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that his country would apply for fast-track membership to NATO. Prior to Putin’s …

On Wednesday, the oil-producing cartel OPEC+, a group that includes Persian Gulf countries and Russia, agreed to reduce production by two million barrels per day in order to keep prices high amid concerns about a recession. The news sparked a strong backlash from the United States—particularly after US President Joe …

Annexation and Mobilization Make Nuclear War More Likely On September 30, following a series of sham referendums held in occupied territory in Ukraine, the Russian government declared that four Ukrainian regions were now officially part of Russia. The annexation came amid a “partial” Russian mobilization that is in fact rapidly …

Security at Home, Influence Abroad In April 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech on foreign policy at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual conference of business executives and world leaders in Hainan Province. In it, he proposed what he called Quanqiu Anquan Changyi, or the Global Security …

Germany on Wednesday said it had resolved “almost all known cases” of its citizens stuck in Syrian jihadist camps, after announcing the repatriation of 12 people. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock released a statement announcing that seven children and four women returned to Germany on Wednesday night from the Roj camp …