On October 12–16, peacekeeping forces of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) conducted the military exercise Unbreakable Brotherhood 2020, in northern Belarus (Mil.ru, October 12). Moscow and Minsk have dramatically augmented the extent of their military cooperation in response to the political upheaval that... MORE

Introduction Recent years have been contentious in terms of nuclear arms control negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation. The United States withdrew from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in February 2019, citing Russian violations of the agreement. In April 2019,... MORE

Introduction On October 19, it was announced that Australia would be joining India, Japan, and the United States in the 2020 Malabar Exercises for the first time since 2017. The 2020 Malabar Exercises are anticipated to be held in the Bay of Bengal and the... MORE

Introduction In his video message marking the International Day of United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers on May 29, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun (张军) said that China is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKO) and will “implement... MORE

Russia’s General Staff uses the annual strategic-level capstone military exercise to test a number of aspects of the Armed Forces, ranging from combat readiness, improved command and control (C2), to rehearsing different levels of conflict, including inter-state warfare (see EDM, September 23). In recent years,... MORE

Chechnya and Ingushetia saw a surprise surge in clashes between government forces and rebels in recent weeks. The government side has suffered casualties for the first time in months. It is too early to say if this uptick in violence represents a lasting trend or... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. *To read Part Three, please click here. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has, in practice, achieved and maintained sovereignty in military affairs for Belarus vis-à-vis Russia (see below). These gains—for Belarus and neighboring... MORE

With the election in the United States less than three weeks away, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise strategic concession to the Donald Trump administration—apparently against the consensus opinion of Russia’s military and diplomatic bureaucracy. The Kremlin proposal looks designed to help US President... MORE

The geopolitical and geo-economic impact of the three-decades-old Karabakh conflict on the stability of the broader South Caucasus is clear and broadly recognized. Given the importance of the South Caucasus as a transcontinental energy corridor, any intraregional instability or periodic flare-ups in violence there pose... MORE

On October 6, Russia’s Northern Fleet again tested the new anti-ship 3M22 Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, launching it from the White Sea. The high-profile weapons system is one of several hypersonic missiles under development referred to by President Vladimir Putin in his address to the... MORE