Recent Posts

IntelBrief: Afghanistan in a State of ‘Durable Disorder’ Under the Taliban Government

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have captured worldwide attention; yet under the Taliban, Afghanistan continues to exist in a state of ‘durable disorder,’ limping along without either fully collapsing or stabilizing. The immediate future in Afghanistan looks bleak, with little confidence that the Taliban will be able to fix …

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IntelBrief: French Withdrawal from Mali Leaves UN Peace Operation Vulnerable

Last Wednesday, November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, the counterterrorism operation established to address the jihadist threat in Mali. The departure of French counterterrorism forces will leave the UN peace operation in Mali – the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) – increasingly …

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Russia’s Missing Peacemakers

Why the Country’s Elites Are Struggling to Break With Putin Even in a war that has gone poorly for Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry’s November 9 announcement of a full retreat from the city of Kherson marked a special kind of disaster. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city seized …

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Turkey Briefing

At 15:17 p.m. Sunday, a CCTV camera picked up a woman in black hijab and tight camouflage pants walking at Taksim Square. A few minutes later, another camera caught her shopping in a store on Istiklal Street. After sitting on a bench for about 45 minutes, at 16:11 she took …

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The Russian-Turkish Bond to Harm the West

Turkey’s skies remain open to Russian airlines and its doors remain open to hundreds of thousands of Russians and their money. Turkey’s exports to Russia are surging. Russian cash helped to plug the growing hole in Turkey’s foreign currency reserves — and at a time when Erdogan needs foreign money …

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