Eurasia

Russian Military Forecasting and Analysis

The Military-Political Situation and Military Potential in Strategic Planning The Russian Ministry of Defense uses military forecasting to inform its long-term planning. Since the 1960s, Russian military analysis has applied comprehensive assessments of a country’s ability to wage war that go beyond weapons and formations. The Ministry of Defense uses …

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Why the UK Should Expand Its Bosnia Sanctions List

While Bosnian Serb separatism has been put on hold for now, there are other actors destabilising the country who should be added to the UK’s sanctions regime. On 11 April 2022, the UK imposed sanctions on Bosnian Serb politicians Milorad Dodik and Željka Cvijanović. The two separatist leaders were the …

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Beware Small Fires

As the world focuses on war in Ukraine, the risks and consequences of smaller conflicts should not be ignored. Western governments, security organisations, academics, think tanks and the media have in recent months understandably focused on the war in Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine has radically altered the established security …

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Russia’s Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons and Its Views of Limited Nuclear War

Russia’s nonstrategic nuclear weapons are designed to achieve deterrence and military success against a technologically superior opponent. They are unlikely to be deployed in Ukraine. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s nonstrategic nuclear arsenal has come to play an increasingly important role in its defensive plans. The definition …

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Libya’s Expanding Proxy War May Be the Ultimate Test of NATO’s Resilience

With Egypt reportedly on the brink of invading neighboring Libya, and troops from Chad said to be on their way north to join Gen. Khalifa Haftar in his fight to topple the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, what was already a complicated proxy war could soon become Africa’s first full-on …

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An Isolated Erdogan Learns the Cost of Hubris in Idlib

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Russia on Thursday, seeking to persuade President Vladimir Putin to help stem disaster in Syria’s Idlib province. Turkish forces are locked in fierce combat there with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army in what has become the last bastion of the armed rebels fighting …

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Turkey Is Playing With Fire in Syria

While the war in Syria has receded from the international spotlight, residents in the country’s northeast are bracing for a new wave of armed conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for months threatened to launch a military invasion of the region to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create …

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Erdogan’s Weaponization of Religion Is Losing Its Edge

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 …

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Russia To Provide Belarus With Guided Missile Systems

Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday said Russia will supply Belarus with Iskander-M mobile guided missile systems within a few months. The Russian leader met with his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, Saturday in St. Petersburg, where Lukashenko told Putin that Belarus is concerned by the “aggressive” and “confrontational” policies of its …

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Iran-Israel’s Incendiary Relations

As Iran-Israel’s relations reach the nadir over the assassination of Colonel Sayeed Khodaye of Unit 840 of the Iranian Army by Israel on May 22, 2022, the quote of Albert Einstein rings a bell “We must learn the difficult lesson that the future of Mankind will only be tolerable when …

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