On January 8, a Russian aircraft carrier group led by the Admiral Kuznetsov made a short visit to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has maintained a small naval supply base since the Cold War. The Kuznetsov had sailed from Severomorsk, near Murmansk, on... MORE

Disputes over the possible presence of al-Qaeda in Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley are beginning to destabilize Syrian-Lebanese relations.  Attention on the Beka’a region has intensified following the December 23, 2011 and January 6, 2012 suicide bombing attacks in Damascus, which left a combined 60 dead and... MORE

Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, paid a crucial visit to Tehran on January 6, amidst the increasing confrontation between Iran and the West. The visit mainly provided an opportunity to address bilateral issues, as it followed a heated debate in recent months which questions whether... MORE

President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly losing the support of the Circassian community many of whose members serve in his army and police. Such is the case of Yaser Ali Abaza, a Syrian Circassian lieutenant who, in a video posted to the Internet on December 29,... MORE

11. China's 2010 National Defense White Paper: An Assessment By Michael S. Chase, China Brief  Despite this White Paper’s lack of detail on specific capabilities, Western analysts should study the perspectives offered in the biannual assessment. One reason is that this White Paper tells us... MORE

The end of 2011 saw a spike in violence in Kabardino-Balkaria. A series of high profile-killings of law enforcement agents followed the killings of several suspected insurgents. On December 31, the commander of a special police unit in Kabardino-Balkaria, Colonel Murat Shkhagumov, was gunned down... MORE

Now that Yemen’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) power transfer initiative has been signed and implementation is beginning, enormous political gains are being made by the fractured coalition of Islamists, Nasserites, and cold war-era socialists known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). As per the GCC... MORE

On November 8th, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that said Iran appeared to be carrying out research activities “relevant to the development of a nuclear weapon” [1]. The report caused a temporary reemergence of the Iranian nuclear issue to the fore... MORE

Tensions in the Levant remain at a fever pitch as the uprising against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad presses ahead into its ninth month in the face of a relentless government crackdown and a rising body count  Occurring on the back of the... MORE

In the 1980s the Saudi Arabia-United States alliance supported the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in their battle against the Soviet Union. Hostility has since grown between al-Qaeda, which formed later and the Saudi regime. Hostilities started after the 1991 Gulf War when the Islamic opposition became... MORE