Executive Summary: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is moving Armenian foreign policy away from traditional alliances with Russia and Iran, favoring closer ties with the West which could be an important paradigm shift in its foreign policy after dependence on Moscow and Tehran. Yerevan’s new... MORE

Executive Summary: Beijing, Bishkek, and Tashkent signed a joint agreement in June to finance and begin constructing the oft-discussed China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway by October 2024. After many years of discussion, China finally pledged to finance over half of the project’s costs, and the parties appear to... MORE

Executive Summary: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe declared that the “decolonization of the Russian Federation is a necessary condition for sustainable peace” and that Russia is pursuing a “policy of genocide” in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine did... MORE

Executive Summary: NATO’s Washington Summit Declaration looks noncommittal and conditions-hedged regarding Ukraine’s eventual membership in the alliance. Member states believe that Ukraine’s accession would involve the alliance in a war with Russia so long as Moscow wages war against Ukraine. The alliance’s decision to designate... MORE

Executive Summary: In the last two weeks, Azerbaijan’s ties to China and Iran have warmed significantly, with Baku and Beijing declaring a strategic partnership and Baku and Tehran announcing the reopening of an Azerbaijani embassy in Iran.  In the South Caucasus, these accords will affect... MORE

Executive Summary: Belarus officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the July summit in Astana, becoming the first European country to join. Minsk hopes to use SCO membership to synchronize the development of the north-south and east-west transit corridors, amplify its increasingly vocal anti-sanctions... MORE

Executive Summary: The recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington yielded many practical decisions on building Western military capabilities and sustaining offensive operations in Ukraine through bilateral security agreements and increased aid from “frontline” states. Moscow hopes to exploit NATO divisions, but Russian... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) sees the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an important part of a wider strategy to construct a new international order. Beijing projects soft power through promoting norms, discursive constructs, and policy preferences in the SCO which member states... MORE

Executive Summary: As currently planned, Afghanistan’s Qosh Tepa Canal will divert water from the Amu Darya river away from Central Asian countries, including those usually referred to as “water surplus” states, as well as China and Russia. Kabul does not participate in any water-sharing accord... MORE

Executive Summary: The United States announced an indefinite postponement of joint military exercises with Georgia that were originally scheduled for the end of July due to Tbilisi’s adoption of the Russian-style “foreign agents” law. Georgia is heavily reliant on Western, specifically US and EU, funding... MORE