Russia’s relations with the West steadily worsened throughout 2018, and hopes that the presumed positive chemistry between United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, might help find some way to reverse this trend never materialized. The long-awaited full-scale Trump-Putin summit in... MORE

In late October, Turkish military forces conducted a series of cross-border artillery strikes against the positions of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition in and around the northeastern Syrian city of Kobani (Kurdistan 24 [Erbil], November 9; The National [Abu Dhabi], October 31). Turkish... MORE

Many military commentators in Moscow and the West have pointed to Russia’s loss of a navy capable of blue-water actions (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, November 30), but they have not focused on the ways in which Russia is beefing up its coastal surface forces and using them... MORE

The tweet by United States President Donald Trump, canceling his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was such a shock for the Kremlin that a response was postponed until “official information” would arrive (RIA Novosti, November 29).... MORE

Moscow has been expanding the size and capabilities of its Caspian Flotilla. Most directly, this has implications for the Caspian littoral states and their development of oil and natural gas from the Caspian seabed. But it also impacts Ukraine and its coastline because the Russian... MORE

Turkey has begun to pay benefits to the families of Syrian armed opposition fighters who were killed or wounded fighting alongside Turkish forces during the August 2016 Operation Euphrates Shield and the March 2018 Operation Olive Branch. These operations were conducted against the ethnic Kurdish-majority... MORE

The Maldivian government has engaged in an effort to restrain radicalized youths from joining jihadists groups in Syria and Iraq. Despite these efforts, the total number of Maldivians fighting in the Syrian civil war has reached 61. According to the island nation’s National Counter Terrorism... MORE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted a summit in Istanbul, on October 27, which brought together President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. The four European leader gathered to try to formulate a solution to the Syrian... MORE

Since initiating the reform of the Russian Armed Forces in 2008, Moscow has paid close attention to the development of its own network-centric warfare capability. Elements of this version of network-centric approaches to combat operations have involved strengthening electronic warfare (EW) capacity, modernizing infrastructure, reforming... MORE

Under the previous Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Damascus balanced its relationship with tribes in the Der Ezzor area by building relationships with certain traditional tribal leaders. Loyalties were secured through parliamentary seats, and by helping secure broader tribal allegiance through favor and reward.  This agreement... MORE