Only three years ago, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China’s third-largest national oil company (NOC), launched the largest-ever Chinese overseas takeover bid, offering $15.1 billion to buy Nexen Inc., Canada’s ninth-largest oil company. Together with China National Petroleum Corporation and Sinopec Group, China’s two... MORE

To the Islamic State militant group, foreign fighters from the Balkans have particular importance due to their historical ties to Islam, their homelands’ proximity to other Western Europe and because ethnic disputes in the region remain close to the surface. A video released in June... MORE

Turkey has been one of Georgia’s closest economic and political partners in the wider Middle East since the latter country regained its national independence in 1991. Currently, Turkey is Georgia’s biggest trading partner, with a 15.4 percent share of Georgia’s total trade turnover with the... MORE

Russia’s aggression against its neighbors is often called “hybrid” war because it makes use of techniques that give the Kremlin deniability in the eyes of some while allowing Russia to advance its power into the territories of other states. If one accepts that definition, even... MORE

On August 4, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev decreed the establishment of a state commission on import substitution. This new entity within Russia’s executive branch aims to alleviate the country’s dependence on the import of goods and services from abroad and to spearhead growth in... MORE

On September 16, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree introducing sanctions against 105 firms and 388 individuals, mainly from Russia, for supporting the annexation of Crimea and the war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas (President.gov.ua, September 16). The decree came into effect... MORE

On August 20, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) came forward with a surprise announcement. The central bank’s chairman, Kairat Kelimbetov, made official the immediate shift to a floating exchange rate of the tenge, the national currency. Since its introduction into circulation in late 1993,... MORE

In December 2014, a video testament emerged in which 19-year-old Sultan Berzel, from the Netherlands’ southern city of Maastricht, called on Muslims to make hijra (a religious migration) to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group. He delivered his message in a quiet voice and with a... MORE

While the 12,000-troop parade at China’s September 3 ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII was a striking sight in Beijing, those who closely follow China’s relationship with the Korean Peninsula may have watched the guests of President Xi Jinping just as... MORE

Georgia’s 2008 Law on Occupied Territories explicitly bans all domestic and foreign companies from conducting any type of economic (commercial or non-commercial) activities in the Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia). Exceptions can be made in certain circumstances but only with the... MORE