Latest Articles about Military/Security
A Rogue Fleet in the Black Sea
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet operated with total impunity—political and legal, as well as military—against Georgia during the August war. Breaching the neutrality of Ukraine, where it is mainly based, and tearing apart international maritime law, the Russian fleet’s actions exploited the vacuum of Western power... MORE
PLAs Mechanization and Informationization Come of Age: Sharpening and Vanguard-2008
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is developing a force that resembles the efforts of the Soviet Army in East Germany in 1986, which was creating an Operational ‘Shock Division’ of three regiments with each regiment containing two tank and two mechanized infantry battalions. Armored divisions... MORE
Arms Sales and the Future of U.S.-Taiwan-China Relations
The outgoing Bush Administration made an 11th hour decision to notify the U.S. Congress on October 3—a day before Congress went into recess ahead of the groundbreaking November presidential election in the United States—that a raft of arms and weapons systems, which have been effectively... MORE
Polish, Georgian Presidents’ Motorcade Shot at from South Ossetia
At dusk on November 23, machine-gun fire from the direction of a Russian checkpoint forced Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and Lech Kaczynski of Poland to cut short a visit with Georgian refugees from South Ossetia. By most accounts, three bursts were fired into the... MORE
Brazilian and Russian Military Cooperation Deepens
According to Russia's Economic Development Ministry, Russia is negotiating to supply helicopters to the Forca Aerea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force, or FAB). The Ministry noted in a statement, "In order to promote Russian helicopters, the Mi-171A helicopter has completed, and the Ka-32A helicopter is currently... MORE
Turkey Adjusts Its Foreign Policy to the Planned U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq
U.S. and Iraqi officials finally agreed on a withdrawal plan requiring Washington to withdraw its forces within three years. The withdrawal will have a direct impact on Turkish-Iraqi relations. Ankara’s immediate concern is related to the control of Iraqi airspace, which will fall under the... MORE
Russia’s Radical Military Reform in Progress
Russia's Radical Military Reform in Progress Russia's top military commander, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of General Staff General Nikolai Makarov told journalists that the Russian army structure was too bulky and not fit for modern warfare. Makarov stated that radical military reforms would... MORE
Were Ukrainian Arms Supplies to Georgia Illegal?
A Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating arms supplies to Georgia has claimed that they were illegal. The commission chairman, Valery Konovalyuk from the pro-Russian Party of Regions (PRU), insists that President Viktor Yushchenko was aware that Ukraine supplied arms to Georgia illegally. The Security Service of... MORE
Turkey Urges International Cooperation in its Struggle against Kurdish Militants
Turkey has recently intensified its international effort to limit the activities of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan - PKK) in the international arena. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has written a letter to European leaders, suggesting that merely recognizing the PKK as... MORE
The Neo-Zarqawists: Divisions Emerge between Jordan’s Salafist Militants
On October 27 an open letter signed by a number of prominent Jordanian Salafists and warning of a new zealot takfiri group in Jordan circulated on jihadist web-forums (alhesbahweb.net, October 27; muslm.net, October 27). Following the takfiri practice of condemning fellow Muslims as apostates or... MORE