Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Pashinyan’s Unclear Vision for Armenian Foreign Policy
The past two months saw Armenia engaged in an extraordinary flurry of diplomatic activity. Shortly after the parliament approved the post–Velvet Revolution government’s draft foreign policy program in early February, an Armenian delegation led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan paid an official visit to Iran... MORE
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Not an Enemy: Belarus Seeks Warmer Relations With NATO
Belarus wants to expand constructive dialogue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the basis of trust, equality, transparency and mutual respect. Further development of cooperation with the Alliance is limited by institutional and ideological constraints, which include the lack of necessary NATO framework... MORE
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China’s Plan for Railway to Uzbekistan Is Transforming Central Asian Geopolitics
Chinese plans to construct a railway from Xinjiang through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and onward to Turkmenistan will, if realized, transform the geopolitical situation in the region. This rail corridor promises to open up new possibilities for regional countries to bypass Russia in pursuit of foreign... MORE
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Moscow Increasingly Ready for Major Military Confrontation
In the last several years, the Russian military has drastically increased its battle readiness in apparent preparation for a possible major conflict with an opposing massive ground force (see EDM, September 29, 2016; December 6, 2017; January 15, 2019). The massive buildup was first publicly... MORE
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Iran and Azerbaijan Proceed With Rapprochement as Diplomatic Exchanges Multiply
Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been firmly on track toward rapprochement since the election of President Hassan Rouhani in Iran and the subsequent progress on the nuclear deal and lifting of Western sanctions. In the last five years, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran met 12 times,... MORE
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The Stillborn Western Naval Convoy to the Sea of Azov: Lessons Learned
On November 26, a day after Russia attacked three small Ukrainian naval vessels attempting to pass through the Kerch Strait, German Chancellor Angela Merkel received official notification about this incident from Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. In addition to sharing with Merkel the details of the... MORE
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Moscow Prepares Tests for Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
Moscow is prioritizing the introduction and further development of high-precision weapons systems to boost its military capabilities. Most of these systems—both already actively deployed or still in development—had featured in Russian defense planning long before the United States announced this past February that it would... MORE
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Words Matter: Belarus’s Self-Awareness on the Rise
Words matter. If only because they have the power to nudge an individual to see things from a wholly new angle. In that regard, the exchange between Mikhail Babich, Russia’s ambassador to Minsk, and the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) proves particularly meaningful. Two... MORE
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Japan Represents Another Russian Failure in Asia
Although analysts in Russia, no doubt with official prompting, generally talk up the success of their country’s so-called pivot to Asia, in fact that policy has little to show for it after a decade of effort. Today, Russia is clearly dependent on China to an... MORE
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Cossacks in Ukraine Back Kyiv Autocephaly; Cossacks in Russia Want It for Themselves
Cossacks in Ukraine and Russia are not the unquestioning soldiers of empire and repression that Moscow, Hollywood and the Western media routinely portray them as being. Certainly, some of the neo-Cossacks that President Vladimir Putin has created to more or less surreptitiously carry out the... MORE