Executive Summary: The Central Asian states are becoming more concerned with the surge in drugs being trafficked from Afghanistan since the Taliban retook power in 2021. The Taliban has banned poppy cultivation, but drug enforcement agencies in Central Asia claim that drug production continues in... MORE

Executive Summary Officials of India's restive Manipur State are attempting to ensure that voting for the country’s lower house on April 19 remains peaceful. Sectarian strife in Manipur has been exacerbated by the influx of refugees from neighboring Myanmar. Manipur is a highly complicated region,... MORE

Executive Summary The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan's (TJP) assaults on high-profile military targets reflect a similar attack pattern to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP), providing additional evidence to the argument that the former is intended to be a front group for the latter. This has contributed to a... MORE

Executive Summary: Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik’s recent visits to India and Mongolia highlight Minsk’s growing ambitions to court alternative economic partners to Russia and the West. These efforts reflect a non-ideological basis for Belarus’s foreign policy, as pragmatic economic considerations almost always trump ideological... MORE

Executive Summary The militant landscape of Pakistan is becoming more complex due to the emergence of several new, small, and highly capable militant groups. They are largely connected to two umbrella organizations, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Hafiz Gul Bahadur (HGB). While HGB includes many... MORE

Executive Summary: The issue of terror financing has become a front and center challenge in Bangladesh. Militants use "self-donations," remittances through the hundi system, robbery, and front businesses to finance their operations. This is particularly important due to the revelation of connections between Jama’atul Ansar... MORE

Executive Summary: The Indian government and the government of the restive northeastern state of Manipur signed a “peace agreement” with the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), a banned ethnic Meitei organization, on November 29, 2023. While signing the peace agreement is a breakthrough for the... MORE

Executive Summary Salaheddin Faroughi (alias Abdolrahim Mollahzadeh) is the emir of Jaish-al-Adl (JAA), a militant group seeking autonomy or an independent state for the Baloch people of Iran and Pakistan. JAA was the proximate cause of the most recent series of cross-border fights between the... MORE

Executive Summary Ikramul Haque, deputy head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and head of the group's propaganda wing, was arrested in Bangladesh in May 2023. His story of recruitment and radicalization highlights AQIS’s cross-border coordination and recruitment in India and Bangladesh, particularly through... MORE

Executive Summary: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan are facing severe water shortages, which Kabul plans to counter with the Qosh Tepa canal, which will likely exacerbate water issues in Central Asia. Uzbekistan’s and Turkmenistan’s economies largely rely on agriculture, and the canal project would detrimentally affect... MORE