The 20th Party Congress has closed, with Xi Jinping’s grip on power even tighter than expected. After years of speculation, the 20th Party Congress has closed, and the new Central Committee elected the members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the men who will rule China for the next five years. …

The Logic of Escalation in an Unraveling War In the spring of 2018, four years before his second invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an unusual speech about the growing strength of the Russian military. “To those who in the past 15 years have tried to accelerate an …

Turkey has enjoyed friendly treatment in the Russian press that has praised Turkey for refusing to knuckle under to the Americans and join the sanctions against Russia. It is the tough interlocutor that looks after its interests as opposed to the supine Europeans, who are shooting themselves in the foot …

In an October 19, 2022 meeting with top Iranian academics, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for investing in the country’s elite, particularly its scientific elite, and touted the nuclear, drone, and missile accomplishments of Iran’s Islamic revolutionary regime, as well as its achievements in launching satellites into space, stem …

Iran sees Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as an ally worth keeping despite his harsh criticisms of Iran and its allies in Iraq. Hundreds of Sadrist protesters joined a demonstration today in Baghdad’s Liberation Square, marking the third anniversary of the start of the so-called October protest movement. On Oct. …

One year after Iraq’s elections, the designated prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, stands poised to form Iraq’s newest government. Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Shia al-Sudani officially requested of parliament Tuesday evening a session to vote on his cabinet. Sudani’s media office tweeted on Oct. 26 that the prime minister designate “is …

Parents outraged by latest actions to suppress protests, as students heckle government official. Tehran’s Mortazavi neighborhood witnessed clashes well into midnight after security forces raided a girls’ high school amid nationwide anti-government unrest that has continued unabated for over five weeks. The tension began after stories made rounds on social …

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Armenia in September 2022 caused some limited geopolitical commotion, as most readers of Baku Dialogues are keenly aware. Without downplaying its regional significance in the slightest, it was, however, her visit to Taiwan in August 2022 that made global …

Turkey’s Islamist President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been militarily threatening a fellow NATO ally, Greece, using increasingly threatening language. He also proudly announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised him to make Turkey an international natural gas hub, therefore selling his gas via Turkey, avoiding Western sanctions. What does …

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, better known by its initials, CSTO—or by Moscow’s aspiration that it should be an equal counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—is now on the brink of collapse, yet another case of the collateral damage Russia has suffered in the post-Soviet space from President …