While Ankara was preoccupied with determining the authenticity of the recent document indicating that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) might attempt to topple the government, the chairman of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal, suggested changing provisional article 15 in the constitution in... MORE

The internecine squabbling between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has left investors puzzled and the U.S. dollar affected. On June 13, Kudrin said at a meeting of the G-8 Finance Ministers in Italy that the global financial system as well... MORE

On June 24 Georgian television channels played video footage from meetings of radical oppositionists Levan Gachechiladze and Davit Gamkrelidze with the fugitive former internal affairs minister Kakha Targamadze, a wealthy man who resides in Moscow and is believed to be in contact with the Russian... MORE

Robert Kaplan proclaims that “the Chinese are the Mahanians now,” enamored with the fin de siècle American sea captain who exhorted seafaring nations to amass international commerce, merchant and naval fleets, and forward bases (The Atlantic, November 2007). By those measures, China is progressing swiftly... MORE

While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must have heaved a sigh of relief over the relatively uneventful 20th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, central party authorities are adopting extra measures to defuse tension between local officials and the masses. Widespread anger at the... MORE

On June 17, following the CSTO and SCO summits, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked the country's first civilian Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov. The presidential press service refused to comment on the reasons for the dismissal, while confirming that the former defense minister and chairman of... MORE

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a revised anti-crisis program for 2009 last week, asserting that the previous plan had been accomplished and setting the first priority on the fulfillment of the state's social obligations for the population and the second - on preserving and developing... MORE

Since the publication of a document, allegedly prepared by Colonel, Dursun Cicek, outlining a plan to undermine the governing AKP and the Gulen movement last week, Turkish domestic politics has focused on the future of civil-military relations (EDM, June 15). Nonetheless, fears over a split... MORE

Beijing’s reaction to the recent North Korean nuclear test may not seem significantly harsher than its response to the DPRK’s October 2006 detonation of a similar device. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration is still calling on concerned countries to conduct “negotiations and dialogue” with... MORE

While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration seems preoccupied with the twofold task of baoba and baowen—maintaining an 8 percent growth rate and upholding social stability—it is also giving priority to the rejuvenation of the party’s leadership. Attention is being focused on young turks of... MORE