Pro-Russia armed groups fanned out during April 11–14 across Donetsk oblast, capturing the seats of authority in town after town: Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Makiyivka, Mariupol, Horlivka, Khartsyzk, Yenakiyeve, Zhdanivka, and several others.  This is a conflict coordinated from Moscow, designed to create faits accomplis on the... MORE

Russian, Ukrainian and Western media, commentators and officials offer conflicting interpretations of Russia’s military “buildup” along Ukraine’s eastern border. The reality of the size and composition of those forces is fiercely disputed. A near war of words has erupted between Moscow and the North Atlantic... MORE

The Russian invasion of Crimea and the tensions with the West that followed it have created a new public climate in Russia with regard to the North Caucasus. “Today, when Russia has found itself practically on the verge of war with its closest neighbor, all... MORE

The government of Turkmenistan has begun mobilizing the country’s army reservists and has sent them to the border with Afghanistan. At least a few dozen reservists were deployed to the town of Serhetabad, (formerly known as Kushka) on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. The border situation worsened... MORE

Statements and declarations about Georgia made by Western countries and especially the United States carry big weight in Tbilisi. Every one of them is read, re-read, analyzed, and scrutinized by Georgian politicians, experts and ordinary citizens alike. US President Barack Obama’s March 26 statement in... MORE

Following the news of Doku Umarov’s death and the elevation of a new leader of the North Caucasian armed underground, experts have started to debate whether this will bring changes in the tactics of the insurgents.The replacement of Umarov, whose death was announced only in... MORE

The Ukrainian authorities’ initial response to the unrest in the country’s southeastern regions was a mixed one: Pro-Russian protesters were able to seize the regional administration buildings in Donetsk and Kharkiv as well as the Security Service (SBU) offices in Donetsk and Luhansk on April... MORE

Moscow seems to be preparing the atmosphere for a possible military intervention in Ukraine’s eastern regions. Russia could, if it deemed expedient, intervene there with troops in some form or other, as it has just done in Crimea. But, more likely, Moscow would leverage the... MORE

A well-coordinated attack on local administrative buildings by pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukrainian cities Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk began on April 6. Local police forces did little to stop the rioting, while local government buildings and the local Ukrainian security service (SBU) headquarters were ransacked... MORE

During recent high-level political meetings, Chinese leaders have made repeated calls for “military reform.” While these speeches have given little detail about the content of such reform, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in particular PLA academics and theorists, appears to have a well-developed, complex and... MORE