On July 4, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he hoped to expand the alliance’s dialogue with China, because “NATO needs to better understand China and define areas where [the two] can work together to guarantee peace and stability” as part of the transformation... MORE

Following the unprecedented mass killings at the Arkan Kergen border post in eastern Kazakhstan, the main suspect, Vladislav Chelakh, was sent to Almaty on June 28 to undergo psychiatric checks. Chelakh is accused of murdering 14 border guard colleagues on May 30, 2012. Yet, the... MORE

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has examined U.S. military precision operations (jingque zuozhan) in local wars with limited objectives since the 1990’s, believing that precision operations have become the basic pattern of joint operations and will become a key capability for integrated joint operations.... MORE

The Russian military does not want to deal with military conscripts from the North Caucasus region and has placed them outside the constitution of the Russian Federation. By applying these exclusionary practices to the North Caucasians, the Russian government is taking yet another step toward... MORE

Recently Tajikistan’s government passed several amendments aimed at curbing radical Islam and the threat of terrorism. Among them are amendments to the law “On Combating Terrorism,” which were approved by the parliament. These amendments expand the already considerable powers of the State Committee for National... MORE

The quick succession of alarming incidents at the Arkan Kergen and Tersayryk border posts (see EDM, June 27) revealed deep-running security problems and raised public concerns about the state of Kazakhstan’s border protection. Border authorities and the National Security Committee gave rather confused and often... MORE

In March, the Russian military command unexpectedly began redeploying troops from Chechnya to Dagestan. Russian military forces left Chechnya in the largest numbers ever since the start of the second military campaign in the republic in 1999, with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 personnel redeployed.... MORE

Over the last few years, senior officers of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT – Milli Istihbarat Teskilati) have held several meetings with cadres of the separatist terrorist organization Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) in order to find points of agreement for the group’s potential surrender. However,... MORE

As Tuareg rebels battle radical Islamists with heavy weapons for control of the northern Mali city of Gao, Mali and the other 15 nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are planning a military offensive designed to drive both groups out of... MORE

Since its emergence in March 2011, analysts and experts have tried to pin down the real shape of Ansar al-Shari’a, the militant Islamist group that established seven Islamic Emirates in southern Yemen after its emergence in March, 2011. [1] While many observers maintain that the... MORE