Introduction Succeeding from the Adolat (“Justice”) movement, which aimed at implementing Islamic law in Uzbekistan in the early 1990s, Tahir Yuldashev and Juma Namangani established the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in 1998 with the intention of overthrowing the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, and... MORE

On October 1, one day before Georgia held local elections, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated that the police had arrested former president Mikhail Saakashvili in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi (Radio Tavisupleba, Civil.ge, October 1). Saakashvili was detained almost immediately upon his return to... MORE

In late September, while President Joseph Biden struggled with a multitude of domestic issues and President Vladimir Putin sought opportunities to score points on the international arena, the United States and Russia accomplished a series of potentially consequential diplomatic exchanges and probes at the medium–high... MORE

Today (September 30) marks the final day in the captive life of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Observer Mission (OSCE OM), which has operated on the Russian side of the Russia-Ukraine border, opposite Ukraine’s Donbas. Russia vetoed a prolongation of the Observer... MORE

On September 20, Tashkent hosted a conference on the topic “Russia and Uzbekistan facing the challenges of development and security at a new historical stage of interaction.” This gathering, jointly organized by Russia’s Valdai International Discussion Club and the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies... MORE

As a fairly small (population-wise) country squeezed between Russia and the European Union, Belarus is destined to be a geopolitical tuning fork, whose reactions and demeanor, if properly understood, provide valuable feedback to the policies of its more powerful neighbors. Thus, one can observe that... MORE

Angered by Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s repressive moves and desirous of being on the right side of history, Western governments have imposed increasingly tough sanctions on Belarus (see EDM, May 18, June 30, August 10). But to a remarkable degree, they have restrained from taking even harsher... MORE

Tensions on the Serbian-Kosovo border have rapidly escalated, threatening to spiral into a renewed conflict in the Balkans. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has ordered military and police units on heightened alert after Kosovo Serbs initiated protests against Pristina’s new vehicle license plates requirements and blocked... MORE

The port of Chabahar—located on the Makran coast of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province, near to the Gulf of Oman and at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz—is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean. Thanks to its strategic position... MORE

Two high-resonance processes have been simultaneously unfolding in Europe in the last few weeks: the sharp increase in the prices on natural gas (see EDM, August 11) as well as the fierce contestation in the parliamentary elections in Germany. Each one is driven by a... MORE