Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are nimble, capable, and self-financing. These three factors combined with the fact that corruption and cronyism have hollowed out their primary rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), mean that the SAF and its allies are unlikely to defeat the RSF.... MORE

On April 15, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was attacked with a homemade explosive device while attending a public campaigning event in Wakayama, a city 50 miles south of Osaka (Japan Times, April 15). This attempted assassination was chillingly reminiscent of the assassination of former... MORE

While the West is still contemplating sending sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Ukraine, such as the Reaper and the Predator, Moscow and Tehran are taking a step further to bolster Russia’s unmanned aerial capabilities and tip the balance of power in Russia’s favor on... MORE

The war in Ukraine unleashed by President Vladimir Putin has finally reached Russian territory. This includes not only raids by sabotage groups into border regions (see EDM, May 31) but also the regular shelling of Russian cities. Furthermore, on May 30, the most massive drone... MORE

The raids in the Belgorod region of Russia on May 22 and June 1 have built on the success of earlier border incursions (see EDM, May 31). Whereas the raid on Sushany in early March 2023 was carried out by a small squad of foot... MORE

On June 2, the Russian General Staff announced a wholesale reorganization of the Russian military, creating two new military districts centered around Moscow and St. Petersburg, an Azov naval district and two new joint forces along Russia’s western border. This plan effectively scraps the reforms... MORE

Executive Summary Due to their wealth of critical natural resources (primarily rare earth minerals), rapidly growing populations (labor and consumer markets) and strategic geographic location, many Francophone and Lusophone countries in Africa occupy strategic roles for China and its large businesses operating in, among others,... MORE

*Read Part One here. *Read Part Two here. Under the Council on Foreign Relations’ imprimatur, Washington and its allies should grant Ukraine a final chance to regain some Russian-occupied territory in one last “fighting season” this summer (Foreign Affairs, April 13). The authors expect this... MORE

Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military philosopher, was rarely studied in Soviet military academies, but the Ukrainian high command—seeking to “win first and start fighting after”—appears to be taking a page out of his treatise, The Art of War. Naturally, the intentions for a spring... MORE

*Read Part One here. Another proposal for an armistice-in-place cutting across Ukraine’s territory has been aired for discussion, this time, from the Council on Foreign Relations (Foreign Affairs, April 13). Politically, these proposals imply rehabilitating Russia as a partner in negotiations with the West (Moscow’s... MORE