Latest Articles about Military/Security
Turkey Supports Pakistan in Opposing U.S. Cross-Border Strikes
Many analysts have commented on Turkey's increasingly innovative and confident foreign policy initiatives, most recently its Caucasian Stability and Cooperation Platform to defuse tension in a region recently torn by armed conflict between Georgia and Russia. Ankara is now using its good offices in an... MORE
Medvedev’s Ambitious Military Reform Plans
Russia has announced its most ambitious, systemic military modernization program since the collapse of the USSR, scheduled to deliver a more efficient and combat-ready military by 2020. These plans betray breathtaking confidence. They will include 955 Borey-type submarines, armed with the Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile;... MORE
Advances in PLA Air Defense Capabilities Challenge Strategic Balance in Asia
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has made considerable progress since the end of the Cold War in constructing a modern integrated air defense system (IADS), using a diverse range of primarily Russian but also domestic technologies. As this system matures over the next decade, it... MORE
Evaluating Trends in Central Military Commission Membership
Leadership ascension in China has long been an opaque and unpredictable process. The 17th Party Congress, due to convene this year, will present another opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reshuffle its top leadership. Included in this will likely be new members of... MORE
China and Pakistan Enhance Strategic Partnership
On September 26, 2008, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met with Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan, in Beijing. The meeting, which called for the enhancement of bilateral strategic partnership, was held against the backdrop of deteriorating U.S.-Pakistan relations as a... MORE
Blocking the Hormuz Strait: China’s Energy Dilemma
Over the last few weeks Iran has amplified its threats that, if attacked, it would immediately close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint nestled between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf (Al-Siyasa [Kuwait], July 7). Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Mohammad Ali... MORE
PLA’s “New Leap Forward” in Information-Centric Command
“Sharpening Sword 2008,” the code name for the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) month-long multi-service and multi-arm joint training counter-strike military exercise, is underway at the Zhurihe Joint Tactical Training Base under the Beijing Military Area Command in the Inner Mongolia grassland. Particular to this year’s... MORE
China, Mongolia Quietly Enhance Military Ties
The Assistant Chief of the General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chen Xiaogong, was in Ulaanbaatar on a four-day visit to attend the third Sino-Mongolian Defense Security Consultation on August 27. Chen's elevation to the position of Assistant Chief of the General Staff,... MORE
Amid Warming Ties Taiwan Scraps Plans for Developing Long Range Cruise Missiles
According to Taiwan’s Presidential Office Spokesperson Wang Yu-chi, the Ma Ying-jeou administration has decided that it will not develop missiles that have a range longer than 1,000 kilometers (580 miles), namely it will not develop "offensive weapon capabilities" that can strike Shanghai (China Times, September... MORE
Chinese Soldiers and Arms Exports Embroiled in Zimbabwe’s Electoral Impasse
Chinese soldiers were spotted patrolling the streets of Mutare, Zimbabwe. The total number of PLA soldiers in Mutare is unconfirmed, but eyewitness accounts place 10 Chinese soldiers in full military regalia equipped with pistols with 70 Zimbabwean soldiers checking into a hotel (Zimbabwejournalists.com, April 15).... MORE