Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) sees the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an important part of a wider strategy to construct a new international order. Beijing projects soft power through promoting norms, discursive constructs, and policy preferences in the SCO which member states... MORE

Executive Summary: The United States announced an indefinite postponement of joint military exercises with Georgia that were originally scheduled for the end of July due to Tbilisi’s adoption of the Russian-style “foreign agents” law. Georgia is heavily reliant on Western, specifically US and EU, funding... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian sociologists claim that President Vladimir Putin’s militant regime is relatively stable despite imbalances in Russian society–such as the unstable economy caused by the war against Ukraine and the challenges it has brought and will bring to the population. Propaganda pushes Russians to... MORE

Executive Summary: The failure for Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive was largely due to delays in the West’s funding and fears in some Western countries of escalation if they clearly define and declare their overarching goal as Ukraine’s ultimate victory and Russia’s total defeat. While Russia has... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia is seeking to augment the ranks of its Africa Corps by recruiting militants from African separatist groups. More broadly, it appears that countries are increasingly turning to private military organizations to secure their interests in Africa. Other countries are also following Russia's... MORE

Executive Summary: On May 23, an Afghan Taliban delegation traveled to Tehran to meet with the emir of Qatar and the head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh. In an effort to downplay bad press as it continues to seek diplomatic recognition, Hamas appears to... MORE

Executive Summary: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to struggle to remove M23 rebels from its eastern provinces despite military aid and the assistance of UN troops and European mercenaries. The current UN peacekeeping mission is expected to withdraw by the end of... MORE

Executive Summary: April 2024 marked the first anniversary of the Sudanese civil war, with the risk of Sudan re-emerging as a hub for jihadist terrorism in Africa on the rise. Some elements of the Sudanese Armed Forces under General al-Burhan are believed to have close... MORE

Executive Summary: Recent activity by Baloch separatists since the start of 2024 in both Iran and Pakistan has drawn international attention, especially after the actions of Iranian Baloch Islamist group Jaish al-Adl led to a brief, surprising exchange of missile and air strikes between the... 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