A worsening economy, a strengthening national identity, a demographic recovery, and growing Russian criticism of Belarus’s sense of nationhood apart from Russia continue to dominate the news emanating from Belarus. In February 2015, registered economic output was 3 percent below that in February 2014; throughout... MORE

Al-Shabaab’s April 2 attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College that killed 147 non-Muslim students was the latest installment in al-Shabaab’s campaign to force Nairobi to order a withdrawal of the Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) from the Jubaland region of southern Somalia. So far, the Kenyan... MORE

This week (April 13), President Vladimir Putin signed an ukaz (presidential decree) to allow the export of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Putin’s decision overruled a previous ukaz signed by then-president Dmitry Medvedev, on September 22, 2010, which incorporated into Russian law United Nations Security... MORE

The much-heralded arrival of the Yixinou train in Madrid last December, after traveling 8,000 miles from Yiwu, China, encapsulated the rapid expansion of China’s railway network across Eurasia and the key role that railroads are playing in Beijing’s New Silk Road strategy (Xinhua, December 9,... MORE

When tracking the development of China’s military capabilities, Western People’s Liberation Army (PLA) watchers encounter frequent challenges in determining which data sources they should draw upon for their analysis. Purely quantitative measurements of the PLA’s nominal force strength, though often valuable, may not provide insights... MORE

China pursues a strategy of aggressive cyberspace management and is in the midst of fostering a military cyber force to further the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) primary interest: to stay in power. Secondary considerations that directly or indirectly support the continuation of CCP rule include... MORE

This paper seeks to examine the intersection of Chinese thought on cyber, space and electronic warfare, particularly in the context of command, control, computers, communication, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (C4ISR) complexes and their use in the current military paradigm. Space warfare is still in a... MORE

Following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent call on October 27, 2014 to build think tanks with “Chinese characteristics,” growing attention has focused on the impact his remarks have had on think tanks in China dealing with foreign policy and economics (see China Brief, December 19,... MORE

In December 2014, Russian telecommunications company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) resumed its business in Uzbekistan after a two-and-half-year absence. In 2012, Uzbekistan’s authorities had accused the company’s local subsidiary, Uzdunrobita (also known as MTS-Uzbekistan), of pursuing illicit financial schemes and illegally exploiting more than 250 base... MORE

On March 26–28, Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Massimov paid a working visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), first to discuss bilateral issues in Beijing and then to attend the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) conference in the province of Hainan. Founded in... MORE