One of the most important consequences of the November 2020 and January 2021 joint Armenian-Azerbaijan-Russian declarations ending the latest round of fighting between Yerevan and Baku was a commitment to the reopening of transportation corridors in the South Caucasus region. These accords sparked hopes in... MORE

In June, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, or HTS) demanded that the Chechen warlord Muslim Shishani join their organization or leave Idlib, Syria. Reports of the demand emerged on June 27. A local news agency in its reporting referred to... MORE

The latest issue of al-Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine prominently featured a call for ‘lone wolf’ style attacks on Americans. This is the first time that al-Qaeda made a call for lone wolf-style jihadists to conduct attacks in the United States since 2017. The article praised attackers... MORE

In two battlegrounds 1,500 kilometers apart, veteran Chechen freelance fighters are being rebuked by those with whom they aligned against a common foe. In June, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main rebel group in the Idlib Governorate of Syria, issued a demand that the hundreds... MORE

Introduction On May 19, the Israeli Embassy in China protested what it called “blatant anti-Semitism” on a Chinese international news program, after the CGTN broadcaster Zheng Junfeng (郑俊峰) openly wondered whether the U.S. position toward Israel was the result of the influence of “wealthy Jews... MORE

Northern Iraq has long been a safe haven for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is a Kurdish militant group recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and European Union. The group has been waging an armed struggle in Turkey since 1984.... MORE

Perhaps not surprisingly, the development of railways in Central Asia and of shipping routes and pipelines across the Caspian Sea are routinely characterized as elements of geopolitical competition among major outside powers, including Russia, China, Turkey, the United States, Iran and India (see EDM, February... MORE

In February, indications of an incoming Turkish military operation targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Sinjar, northern Iraq led to a flurry of Iranian-backed militia activity targeting Turkey. Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), one of the most prominent Iranian-aligned militias in... MORE

While the United States is expected to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan well before its September 11 deadline, the countries bordering the violence-plagued nation are enhancing their capacity to combat a potential new wave of terrorism. The chaos emanating from Afghanistan poses a large security... MORE

Back in 2016, Iran put forward a regional initiative to expand the Persian Gulf–Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, which, in addition to the Islamic Republic itself, involves Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece. This multimodal corridor begins from the Gulf... MORE