Recent Posts

Turkey and Egypt Open the Door to a Diplomatic Thaw

In mid-March, Turkey and Egypt confirmed they’d had their first diplomatic contact since breaking off relations in 2013. Though the talks were described by Egyptian sources as preliminary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, “Contacts at the diplomatic level have started.” The thaw comes after a decade …

Read More »

How Many Bridges Can Turkey’s Erdogan Burn?

Since his sweeping overhaul of Turkey’s political system in 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented his near-total control over the country. Despite the worst electoral setback of Erdogan’s career in the Istanbul mayoral election in June 2019, as well as a tailspinning economy exacerbated by the fallout from the …

Read More »

A Seven-Year Fuse Blows Up Czech-Russian Relations

It is hard to know what is most surprising about the fatal depot story: the timing, the scale of the Czech response, or the operation itself. It can be disconcerting to discover you have been at war for seven years. The Czech government’s announcement that Russia was behind an explosion …

Read More »

Turkey’s Tightrope Between Russia and the United States

One question has been irking Turkish commentators since January: why won’t U.S. President Joe Biden speak to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? All the key world leaders have had phone conversations with the new U.S. president—Russia’s Vladimir Putin included—but Turkey’s president has been given the cold shoulder. Erdoğan must …

Read More »

Is Ukraine Ready for the Next Russian Invasion?

Though it is clear that Kiev cannot win in any scenario involving a solo defense against a Russian invasion, it can possibly prevent Moscow from achieving a blitzkrieg-style outcome through persistent military and civilian resistance. In recent weeks, the Kremlin executed the largest military build-up on the Russian-Ukrainian border since …

Read More »

Egypt, Sudan to build port in border area

Egypt and Sudan agreed to set up a joint committee for the development of the port of Wadi Halfa in Sudan, as part of efforts to boost bilateral relations. At a meeting held in Khartoum April 12, and chaired by Sudan’s Minister of Transport Mirghani Mousa, Egypt’s Minister of Transport …

Read More »