Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to Moscow for a secret meeting the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US Congress, demonstrating Putin’s scramble to maintain influence in the Middle East. Russia’s renewed interest in the Middle... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) engages in extensive security cooperation with other single-party socialist states. This includes deploying the People’s Armed Police (PAP) to train paramilitary and police forces in these countries, offering cybersecurity support, and assisting with online information control. Policymakers... MORE

Executive Summary: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Islamabad and the trilateral meeting of Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Türkiye in early July highlight growing cooperation in various fields among the three countries in trying to gain more influence over regional trade and transit. Baku and Ankara... MORE

Executive Summary: Mongolia is engaging in efforts, including bilateral negotiations and official visits, to improve relations with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan following a long period of stagnant foreign policy toward Central Asia. These states share a Soviet legacy, resource extraction-oriented economies, and similar geopolitical and... MORE

Executive Summary: As new peace proposals are published, Russian President Vladimir Putin does not appear to be any closer to accepting negotiations with Ukraine to conduct a ceasefire or end the war. The European Union, except for Hungary, is showing stronger support for Ukraine, aiming... MORE

Executive Summary: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit did not unveil any particular strategy—let alone a winning one—to deal with Russia’s war against Ukraine, postponing any draft strategy until next year and stopping short of recognizing that Ukraine is the immediate arena of a... MORE

Executive Summary: NATO’s Washington Summit Declaration looks noncommittal and conditions-hedged regarding Ukraine’s eventual membership in the alliance. Member states believe that Ukraine’s accession would involve the alliance in a war with Russia so long as Moscow wages war against Ukraine. The alliance’s decision to designate... MORE

Executive Summary: In the last two weeks, Azerbaijan’s ties to China and Iran have warmed significantly, with Baku and Beijing declaring a strategic partnership and Baku and Tehran announcing the reopening of an Azerbaijani embassy in Iran.  In the South Caucasus, these accords will affect... MORE

Executive Summary: Belarus officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the July summit in Astana, becoming the first European country to join. Minsk hopes to use SCO membership to synchronize the development of the north-south and east-west transit corridors, amplify its increasingly vocal anti-sanctions... MORE

Executive Summary: The recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington yielded many practical decisions on building Western military capabilities and sustaining offensive operations in Ukraine through bilateral security agreements and increased aid from “frontline” states. Moscow hopes to exploit NATO divisions, but Russian... MORE