The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have resolved to establish a national security council (guojia anquan weiyuanhui) in order to “perfect the national security system and strategy, and guarantee national security” (Xinhua, November 12). The call, buried in the final communiqué of the Third... MORE

Militants in Dagestan have been extensively targeting judges in the republic, killing four so far this year. On January 15, Dagestani Supreme Court judge Magomed Magomedov was killed in Makhachkala. On March 9, federal judge Akhmed Rajabov was killed near his home in Izberbash. On... MORE

Two Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers have flown from their permanent base in Engels airbase in the Saratov oblast on the Volga River to Venezuela on October 28. From Venezuela, the bombers patrolled the Caribbean and also landed in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. From Managua,... MORE

China's relationship with Japan took a turn for the worse this past week, with a number of incidents and statements increasing tensions over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. On October 27th, a formation of H-6 bombers and Y-8 surveillance aircraft passed the disputed area on their... MORE

                Executive SummaryTwo years ago, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s assassination by Western-backed rebels (October 20, 2011) marked the end of all-out civil war and the collapse of the state in Libya. The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) based their case for... MORE

On October 14, President Viktor Yanukovych launched the advanced stage of Ukraine’s military reform by issuing a decree canceling the compulsory draft to the armed forces in 2014 (https://dt.ua/UKRAINE/v-ukrayini-skasovano-obov-yazkoviy-prizov-na-strokovu-sluzhbu-v-armiyu-130046_.html). However, Yanukovych’s announcement nearly coincided with a scandal involving three top Ukrainian generals in the General... MORE

Russia’s defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu, has served in office for one year and has scaled back or halted some of the reform initiatives of his predecessor, Anatoly Serdyukov. Yet, an underestimated aspect to Shoigu’s leadership relates to an increased level of secrecy around defense... MORE

On October 23, in Beijing, a driver crashed his Jeep into a gate in Tiananmen Square, setting off an explosion that killed two foreign tourists, the driver and his two passengers, who were his wife and mother. It also injured 40 other people. Within one... MORE

As Russian defense manufacturers continue to stumble and produce failure-prone arms and equipment, Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, has been tasked by the Kremlin with fixing this under-performing sector. Yet, rather than introducing significant reforms and economic incentives... MORE

In October 2013, Russian authorities reportedly thwarted a possible attack by militant extremists against the Maradykovo chemical weapons (CW) storage and elimination facility in the Middle Volga region of Kirov. The authorities stated that two young males from the North Caucasus allegedly had bomb components... MORE