Last Sunday marked the 93rd anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, which used to be the major official holiday in the Soviet Union and remains a date about which the Russians have mixed feelings, but only 9 percent see it as a catastrophe (www.levada.ru, November 2).... MORE

The National Security Council (NSC) is an apparatus for the top executive to “formulate, coordinate and oversee security and defense policy” in order to “enhance effectiveness by developing strategies, guidance, mobilizing resources and overseeing implementation” [1]. Conceptually, the NSC in Taiwan, as in the United... MORE

Underneath the fanfare that greeted the FBI’s arrest of ten Russian intelligence officers in June, federal authorities quietly proceeded against a young Michigan man, Glenn Duffie Shriver, applying to the CIA at the direction of Chinese intelligence. The story missed major media outlets and was... MORE

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, recently indicated to the visiting Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, that Croatia’s accession talks to join the EU may be completed by the end of 2011, rather than in the spring, as Zagreb had assumed. Barroso and other EU... MORE

After months of deliberations, on November 3, the US Defense Department (DoD) renewed its collaboration with Mina Corp Ltd., which has supplied jet fuel to the US Transit Center Manas in Bishkek for the past six years (https://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=61543). A one year $315 million contract allows... MORE

Only a few days after the U.S. army ended its combat mission in Iraq came the declaration of a split within one of the most prominent insurgent groups, al-Jaysh al-Islami fi’l-Iraq (Islamic Army in Iraq - IAI). A group of IAI field fighters, calling themselves... MORE

This week Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, after completing a state visit to Vietnam, landed on the southern Kurile Island of Kunashir (Japanese name –Kunashiri) which has been under Russian rule since 1945. Japan claims the so-called Northern Territories of the Southern Kuriles: the Habomai islets,... MORE

Turkey and Mongolia held their sixth Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting in Ulaanbaatar on October 26. Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, headed the Turkish delegation, and Mongolia’s Environment and Tourism Minister, Luimed Gansukh, signed a memorandum of understanding to boost economic and commercial relations. Related... MORE

The Kremlin has repeatedly pledged to implement sizable infrastructure development projects in Mongolia. However, new Russian projects in this neighboring state have tended to be slow to materialize. In an apparent bid to speed up joint projects, in early October Russia and Mongolia moved to... MORE

The ill-omens continue accumulating for NATO in the run-up the Alliance’s summit. Among the adverse trends (which NATO and the United States are unwilling to discuss) is the temptation of some West European governments and arms producers to sell modern military equipment to Russia. This... MORE