Disgruntled al-Shabaab fighters are increasingly deserting the radical Islamist group after years of fighting for the movement in southern Somalia. The deserters are mainly from southern Somalia’s Hawiye clan, while the movement’s current leader, Shaykh Ahmad Abdi Godane “Abu Zubayr,” hails from the Isaaq clan... MORE

2010 turned out to be more difficult for Russia than the previous year in terms of its problems in the North Caucasus. Nearly all top Russian officials, including Russia’s president, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Minister,... MORE

The end of voting in the presidential election on December 19 was followed by a large demonstration in October Square, which eventually moved to Independence Square. There followed a violent attack by riot police that left numerous people hospitalized, seven of the nine presidential candidates... MORE

New trends in Russian defense spending signal a return towards militarization. In the past decade, defense spending increased from 141 billion rubles to 2,025 trillion rubles without leading to a growth in deliveries, as these figures were consumed by rising costs for modernizing old models... MORE

Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, has launched a reform of public administration. This is the second major reform related to the economy undertaken by his government after the tax reform, which was rubberstamped by parliament in early December. Next will be pension, housing and customs service... MORE

Since the highly ambitious reform of Russia’s conventional armed forces was launched, December became a month for setting out future plans, achieving key targets or making various claims about its “success.” December 2009, for instance, marked the official completion of the transition to the brigade-based... MORE

On December 29, 2010, a prominent Circassian ethnographer, Arsen Tsipinov, was gunned down at the doorsteps of his home in a suburb of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. Tsipinov was known for his active role in promoting Circassian ethnic identity and culture. The ethnographer’s killing... MORE

The year 2010 could have been marked as “not-so-bad” in the still short annals of Russia’s post-Soviet history. It was the scorching summer heat and massive fires that would be remembered as the main feature of the year, but it also witnessed the return of... MORE

In May 2009, Ali Salim al-Beidh officially reentered Yemeni politics with a speech addressed to his former constituents in southern Yemen. In the speech, al-Beidh called on southern Yemenis to continue their struggle against what he calls the military occupation of the south by the... MORE

The execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006, led to the cleaving of his Ba’ath party over the question of succession. At that time, the party which had ruled Iraq for 35 years and had hundreds of thousands in its membership was significantly degraded.... MORE