For the past several weeks, a group of Armenian soldiers have been taking part in a joint exercise with their Georgian counterparts at the Sachkhere Mountain Training School—a training facility in Georgia established with assistance from the United States and France. Since 2010, the school... MORE

While the reputation and prestige of Russia’s Armed Forces was damaged abroad by its involvement in Ukraine, the intervention in Syria has been reaping dividends both at home and abroad. The General Staff attaches greater importance to learning lessons based on the Syria conflict than... MORE

East Asia is in the midst of an intensifying struggle with methamphetamine trafficking that has led to dramatic political changes. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, elected on a populist agenda, has made the swift elimination of narcotics trafficking the central promise of his administration. While his... MORE

China’s central Party leadership recognizes that the Chinese economy must shift away from light manufacturing and intermediate goods like steel to higher value-added manufacturing.  In July 2016 the Chinese State Council Information Office published the “National Informatization Development Strategy Outline” (国家信息化发展战略纲要), laying out the central... MORE

Under the pretext of joining the global war on terrorism, the Xi Jinping administration has imposed unprecedentedly harsh restrictions on the civil liberties and rights of the 10 million Uighurs living in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The shift in President Xi’s Xinjiang policy... MORE

In early January China’s Foreign Ministry published a White Paper on “China's Policies on Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation” signaling an intensification of China’s effort to establish itself as the dominant power in Asia and dislodge U.S. influence (FMPRC, January 11). Building on the country’s economic strength,... MORE

On February 1, Russian and then Belarusian media reported some unexpected news: Moscow decided to set up a border zone between its Smolensk, Bryansk and Pskov regions and Belarus (RIA Novosti, February 1). The decision was met with an immediate negative reaction in Minsk, where... MORE

The sharp escalation in artillery battles in the Donbas (eastern Ukraine) war zone one day after the January 28 telephone conversation between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was certainly not a coincidence. No leaks about the content of the 45-minute-long... MORE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on January 30, in Berlin, for an “exchange of views” on the “conflict in Ukraine,” “the peace process and the implementation of the Minsk armistice” (Bundeslanzlerin.de, January 27, 30). Those code words are widely used in... MORE

With multiple global crises competing for urgent public attention, it is not surprising that Western media and governments have failed to keep pace with Russia’s double game in Afghanistan. But in fact, Russian actions there provide a revealing “tutorial” on Moscow’s real approach to the... MORE