Executive Summary: The Caspian Sea region looks to become an international energy hub as the European Union seeks alternatives to its energy dependence on Russia through the export of natural gas from littoral Caspian Sea states. Moscow is concerned about the prospect of the Caspian... MORE

Executive Summary Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 emboldened Moscow to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fanning the flames of “pan-Russian” nationalism and providing the ideological justification. The cultural, military, and geopolitical significance of Crimea is underpinned by its... MORE

Executive Summary:  Kazakhstan is looking to bolster trade relations beyond Eurasian Russia to the European Union and the United States partly due to Moscow’s war against Ukraine and sanctions imposed against Russia, limiting economic opportunities. The rich natural resource deposits in Kazakhstan will likely attract... MORE

Executive Summary: The Kremlin has reconsidered its support for the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, throwing more weight behind the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Transitional Sovereignty Council. The move serves to align Moscow’s position more closely with that of Iran, seeks to dampen the SAF’s... MORE

Executive Summary: The Ukrainian defense industry has production capacities for purchasing, producing, and repairing weapons that exceed the available budget and thus needs more external funding from foreign investors. The strengthening of Ukraine’s domestic defense sector is critical for providing a steady supply of munitions... MORE

Executive Summary: A recent translation of a book by influential writer and retired PLA officer Liu Mingfu includes a previously censored chapter on a new approach to reunification with Taiwan, indicating that a wider range of approaches to the “Taiwan question” are in play than... MORE

Executive Summary:  In June, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss, among other issues, Türkiye’s prospective membership in the loose-economic grouping of BRICS, which Putin “fully supports.” The impetus for BRICS expansion has grown significantly amid Russia’s full-scale invasion... MORE

Executive Summary: Senior advisers to former US President Donald Trump issued recommendations for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, observing that the Biden administration has lacked a strategy for Russian defeat and Ukraine is losing the long war of attrition. The recommendation of a quick transition... MORE

Executive Summary: Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka recently made a series of public pronouncements that have provoked Armenia and Israel and placed Belarus in an even more precarious geopolitical position. Lukashenka’s flippant comments in Azerbaijan, tense relationship with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and series of... MORE

Executive Summary: In June, Kazakhstan voiced its plans to declassify data on rare-earth and rare-metal deposits as well as a renewed effort to attract Western investment to mine and process the country’s vast reserves. Russia’s war against Ukraine has exposed the European Union and Western... MORE