11-months into the war in Ukraine, significant Russian military casualties have forced Moscow to rely more heavily on the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private military company. Amid battlefield attrition of his forces, Wagner head Prigozhin has lowered recruiting standards and is actively recruiting from Russian prisons. Prison recruitments will inevitably …

Yemen’s long-running civil war between the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen Government and the Iran-backed Houthi movement diminished in 2022, but a permanent solution will likely remain elusive in 2023. Two negotiating tracks – one led by U.N. mediators and a separate Oman-brokered Saudi Arabia-Houthi dialogue – have failed to …

U.S. and allied policy toward Iran will grow even more hardline in 2023 as the various threats posed by Tehran have become more acute, particularly its alliance with Moscow. Long-stalled negotiations to revive the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear agreement are unlikely to resume, and Iran will advance its nuclear program …