Articles

Russia is already building missiles outside the INF treaty, according to an October 29, 2018 report from the Congressional Research Service.

By any standard, Russia’s attack upon Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea is an act of war.

NATO's new mission should be robust, visible and built around two key goals: safeguarding the free flow of maritime traffic in the region (something that Russia's actions have threatened), and bolstering Ukrainian sovereignty by augmenting the military assistance already being provided to the country by the U.S. and Europe.

In August of 2008, Russia used separatist proxies in South Ossetia to attack Georgian villages near the city of Tskhinvali.

As officials in Kyiv have consistently warned, an intensification of the on-again, off-again shooting war between the two countries was only a matter of time.

Two grim words — ‘hollowed out’ — routinely surface when we speak about America’s once formidable industrial and manufacturing prowess. 

On November 25 Russian vessels blocked Ukrainian ones from entering the Sea of Azov, fired on Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea, rammed some of those ships, seized three Ukrainian ships, and wounded six in these exchanges.

Just how solid is the strategic partnership between Russia and Iran?

China is now in full celebration mode, commemorating four decades since it turned away from Mao Zedong Thought and toward Reform and Opening Up — the blend of market and socialist policies initiated in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping that the Communist Party credits for “giving the Chinese people growth and prosperity.”

The U.S.-Saudi relationship is growing paradoxically both more contentious and more collaborative. What does that mean for the oil industry?

Last week (November 9), Russia finally convened its long-heralded peace conference on Afghanistan.

These days, the consensus among connected venture capitalists and savvy entrepreneurs is unanimous: Israel's hi-tech sector is thriving.

In fact, China’s stake in Israeli hi-tech has become so significant that it now runs the risk of impacting the longstanding special relationship between Jerusalem and Washington.

Having illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow lost no time in seizing Ukrainian energy assets in and around the region.

The Islamic State may be receding in Iraq and Syria, but its militants may soon find safe harbor nearby — in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

On Nov. 6, Americans will go to the polls in midterm elections that are likely to reshape the complexion of national politics. But even before they do, U.S. foreign policy will face a crucial test of resolve vis-a-vis the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

As Korean policymakers, aid workers and scientists look to solve challenges, they should turn to Israel to find existing innovations that can make a difference, or create new ones together. 

Let's be clear: the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was a despicable act by a regime that, even after enacting modest reforms recently, still tolerates virtually no domestic dissent...The United States needs Saudi support to rein in the America-hating, terror-sponsoring, nuclear weapons-pursuing, regional destabilizing and human rights-abusing regime in Iran.

When people discuss Indo-Russian relations, they generally focus on Russia’s arms sales to India. However, India’s energy relations with Moscow also possess considerable and, arguably, growing significance.

Forty thousand participants; 130 aircraft; 70 vessels; 30 participating countries: Exercise “Trident Juncture 18” already has been labeled as one of the “most complex exercises” to be executed by NATO in the past 30 years and, in terms of countries participating, is the largest military exercise of 2018

The strange (and almost certainly tragic) case of Jamal Khashoggi – the Saudi civic activist turned American newspaper columnist – continues to profoundly roil U.S.-Saudi relations.

Political repression can go a long way. Just ask Nicolas Maduro.

The proof is increasingly irrefutable: China's Uighurs are under assault.

For some time, Western sources have been accusing Moscow of backing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.However, little effort has been done to analyze the modalities of this support and the way it relates to Moscow's overall policies and objectives in Central and Southern Asia.

There's a growing Iranian Infiltration into Morrocco.

The signs of breakdown in the liberal international order are mounting, and they’re coming from disparate directions.

War, peace, democracy and U.S. policy in the Caucasus.

The answer, one of Russia’s leading opinion centers has concluded, has everything to do with a pervasive sense of cultural siege.

The answer, one of Russia’s leading opinion centers has concluded, has everything to do with a pervasive sense of cultural siege.

This week, Russia is hosting its biggest military exhibition—Army-2018.

Thirteen years ago, as the Bush administration and its "freedom agenda" entered its second term in office, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman took the pulse of popular sentiment in Iran, and came away with some surprising conclusions. Iran, Friedman heard from Iranian expatriates and regime insiders, was the ultimate "red state," where the population did not share the ruling regime's hatred of the West and where people craved greater freedom and democracy.

It's official: U.S.-Turkish relations are in a tailspin.

Only time will tell if Tehran will cave to Washington's demands.

Films by regime-friendly directors reveal the more subliminal level of what government representatives proclaim explicitly in interviews.
 

But is he willing to embrace the policies of past administrations in order to achieve that goal?

Military Innovation, Commercial Technologies, and Great Power Competition

Even though the Islamic State group has been greatly diminished, its offshoots and other terrorist groups still wreak havoc around the world.

An American president meets his Russian counterpart in Helsinki. Critics worry that he'll validate Russia's rule over its conquered neighbors, while human rights advocates fret that he won't discuss their issue.

The Russian Ministry of Defense is pursuing artificial intelligence with an urgency that has only grown since Vladimir Putin’s “rule the world” speech in September.

The threats to U.S. LNG range from external shocks, Asian governments keeping their doors closed, and the need to finish domestic investment.

On July 16th, President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what is shaping up to be a highly anticipated – and highly controversial – bilateral summit.

The fresh outbreaks of street protests in Tehran that have taken place in recent days raise the question of whether this will be just a temporary disturbance or a sign of more significant changes to come.

America's Iran policy is at a crossroads. In the wake of President Trump's recent decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal, his administration has unveiled a new, more muscular approach toward the Islamic Republic.

The record-setting nuclear deal inked between China and Russia earlier this month is the latest blow to America’s declining influence in commercial nuclear power across the globe.

Russia, like many other nations, is investing in the development of various unmanned military systems. The Russian defense establishment sees such systems as mission multipliers, highlighting two major advantages: saving soldiers’ lives and making military missions more effective.

Getting to better relations with Turkey will not be easy. But it’s far from impossible.

Does the road to Tehran lead through Singapore? Hopes are high that next week's summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will begin a process leading to the total, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

When President Trump announced last month that America would leave the global nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose U.S. sanctions, Europe's leaders vowed to create financial mechanisms that would enable their firms to do business with Tehran and protect them from U.S. financial retaliation.

Global outrage over last month’s peak to the so-called Great March of Return on the Gaza-Israel border was instant and understandable. Over 50 people died and hundreds more were injured on a single day. 

Earlier this month, after experiencing a long hiatus from violent extremism, Indonesia succumbed anew to Islamist terrorism when a family of suicide bombers struck three different churches in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya.