The US intelligence community has concluded that a Russian military intelligence officer, based in Abkhazia, commissioned the bomb blast outside the US embassy in Tbilisi and other bomb explosions during 2010 in Georgia. The Obama administration has accepted this conclusion, and attempted to discuss the... MORE

China Reacts to Admiral Mullen Visit Beijing heralded US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, visit to China as an important step forward, signifying the normalization US-China military relations. Chinese magazine Liaowang described military-to-military relations as an important barometer of US-China... MORE

This is the second of a two-part series about the grade (zhiwu dengji) system of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and how China’s forthcoming carrier might fit into the fleet structure of the PLA Navy (PLAN). Part 1 provided an overview of the PLA’s Table... MORE

The history of the conflict resembles a detective novel. One year ago, on July 24, 2010, Doku Umarov, in his capacity as leader of the armed resistance in the North Caucasus, appointed Emir Aslanbek (aka Aslanbek Vadalov) as his future successor. In the same address,... MORE

The present Russian constitution, adopted in 1993, was specifically tailored to give the president (at the time – the late Boris Yeltsin) immense and unbalanced power in anticipation that this could facilitate bold reforms and a rapid transformation from a centrally-planned communist state to a... MORE

Army-General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff has attempted to end the constant vacillation by the Russian defense ministry on the critical issue of the future of military manpower. Although much of his thinking on this relates to a process lasting several years,... MORE

Georgia’s official presidential photographer, another photographer who was an Internal Affairs Ministry contract employee, and the Tbilisi representative of the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), have all pleaded guilty and received suspended sentences on espionage charges. The three were in pre-trial detention since July 7, suspected... MORE

Executive Summary: Now raging into its fifth month, the Libyan revolution is spreading to more and more parts of the country, with smaller, more regionally autonomous battles with the Qaddafi regime coming to the fore as the rebels seek to develop a unified command. The... MORE

On July 5, Sergei Konovalov treated the world to the birth of military opposition to Russia’s “New Look” defense reforms. According to Konovalov, three senior officers had resigned from their posts and been retired (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 5). The resignations of Lieutenant-General Andrei Tretyak, Lieutenant-General... MORE

A series of rebel attacks were reported this past week in Dagestan, graphically illustrating that the republic remains the epicenter of insurgent activity in the North Caucasus.In Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala today (July 22), gunmen targeted Col. Akhmed Bataliev, the head of the republic’s center for... MORE