Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
Caliphate at War: Islamic State Ideology, War Fighting and State Formation
A series of books that I remember from my teenage days when I was in school in France sought to provide a succinct explanation for a variety of phenomena. The series title was De Quoi S’Agit-Il? This roughly translates as “what does it mean or... MORE
The Kurdish Periphery
The Kurds play a key role in the war against the Islamic State as they are located on the periphery of the jihadist organization’s two de-facto capitals, Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. As a result, both Western states and Russia are courting the... MORE
Growing Number of Russian Converts to Islam Joining Insurgents at Home and Abroad
With 28-year-old Anatoly Zemlyanka’s notorious killing of 23-year-old member Magomed Khasiev, ethnic-Russian Muslims are again in the spotlight. Khasiev (a. k. a. Yevgeny Yudin), an ethnic-Russian convert to Islam, came from the Ural region in Russia, while Zemlyanka came from the Siberian town of Noyabrsk.... MORE
Turkey’s Reaction to the War in Syria
Just as in other parts of the world, the Syrian civil war has been discussed deeply in Turkey. Turkish public opinion has different views on the Turkish government’s policies on Syria. For example, in the last election, although Erdogan’s party received 50 percent of the... MORE
Rebel Reaction to Russian Intervention
On September 30, Russia’s military intervention in Syria officially began with airstrikes against Syrian armed opposition forces in western Syria. Since the start of Russia’s military intervention, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its auxiliary forces—such as the National Defense Force (NDF) local militia network,... MORE
Russian Intervention in Syria
Russia launched its intervention in Syria at the end of September 2015, immediately after President Vladimir Putin’s grandiloquent but uninspired speech at the United Nations General Assembly. At first glance, Moscow’s Syrian campaign appears hastily improvised, and it does not seem to reflect sound planning... MORE
Belarus’ Nobel Prize Winner and Her Country Defy Clichés
On December 7, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, gave her Nobel lecture in Stockholm (Naviny.by, December 7). The lecture was delivered in Russian, the language in which Alexievich writes. In it, she first dwelled on her post–World... MORE
Destruction of Donbas Economy Supports Local Russia-Backed ‘Insurgency’
Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s key energy company DTEK announced the restructuring of its $750 million and $160 million Eurobonds, which are set to mature in 2018 (Interfax-Ukraine, December 1). One of the main reasons for the company’s continuing financial troubles has been the war in... MORE
Moscow’s Insistence on Micro-Managing Dagestan Is Destabilizing the Republic
Moscow’s Insistence on Micro-Managing Dagestan Is Destabilizing the Republic Dagestani experts are sounding the alarm about a rise in ethnic tensions in the republic. Some analysts see Dagestan’s current governor, Ramazan Abdulatipov, as the culprit in the rising tensions because the republic’s Avar majority is... MORE
Armenia Facing Demographic Collapse
“ ‘All progressive humanity’ is concerned by the periodic reports about the disappearance of this or that type of plant or animal, [but] we are much less concerned about the disappearance of nations and nationalities,” Armenian expert Gevork Pogosyan says. Yet, as the post-Soviet period... MORE