Executive Summary: Violent attacks on people and property in the Russian regions bordering Ukraine are threatening Moscow’s control there. The attackers, many of whom are Russian veterans with criminal pasts, are better armed and sometimes outnumber the local police. These veterans are often joined by... MORE

Executive Summary: In a historic first for any democracy at the national level, mass recall campaigns in Taiwan are seeking to overturn the opposition’s legislative majority that was elected in 2024. The recall campaigns are the latest battleground in an ongoing power struggle between the... MORE

Executive Summary: As Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to reimpose totalitarianism on Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) increasingly mirrors its Soviet predecessors, including rebuilding a network of camps some are calling “Gulag 2.0,” among other ways. The quiet revival of these other functions... MORE

Executive Summary: Corruption in Russia worsens the longer the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine continues because the war creates expanded opportunities for bribery and the state seizure and misallocation of assets. The Kremlin has generally sought to downplay the growth of corruption to conceal how the... MORE

Executive Summary: New evidence suggests that a faction within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aligned with former president Hu Jintao and former premier Wen Jiabao could be exerting influence on the direction of the Party. Three party elders—all of whom were Hu Jintao allies—reportedly criticized... MORE

Decolonization for Security: Ukraine’s Strategic Policy Toward Indigenous Peoples Colonized by Russia, by Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Deputy Chair, Temporary Special Commission on the Development of State Policy Toward the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Parliament,  is the second article in a series of analyses... MORE

Executive Summary: The newly released draft of Moscow’s new nationality policy strategy document devotes far more attention to ethnic Russians as the “state-forming” nation than the document it will replace and far less to developing non-Russian nations in the Russian Federation. This document will likely... MORE

Executive Summary: Armenia faces a deepening power struggle as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan openly attacks Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, intensifying long-standing tensions between the state and the Armenian Apostolic Church ahead of the 2026 elections. The conflict exposes constitutional... MORE

Executive Summary: Elite privilege and lack of transparent checks and balances mean that corruption scandals are a feature of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) system of governance. As Beijing seeks to manage rising public discontent and technocratic continuity, it faces a delicate balancing act between... MORE

Executive Summary: Moscow is facing greater resistance to its military draft in the North Caucasus because of increasing quotas and the disproportionate impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine on the region. The Russian government is applying more repressive pressure on North Caucasians... MORE