South Asia Strategy Monitor No. 20
Violence surges anew in India's Manipur;
The Tapi gets a new lease on life;
Another win for the Taliban;
Decision time in J&K
Violence surges anew in India's Manipur;
The Tapi gets a new lease on life;
Another win for the Taliban;
Decision time in J&K
Three jailed for sedition mark the end of free speech in Hong Kong;
U.S. Coast Guard tracks Chinese, Russian vessels off the Alaskan coast;
China spends $2 billion per month on Iranian oil;
U.S. concerned about China's lending to indebted countries;
South Korea probes China’s manipulation of public opinion
Russia’s demographic crisis continues;
Surging drone production...;
...Gets a helping hand from Beijing;
Moscow incentivizes criminal enlistment...;
...And fields a "grandpa" army;
Viktor Bout is back - and helping Moscow meddle in the Mideast
Israel Mulls Its Iran Options: With considerable trepidation, the Middle East, and indeed the wider world, is awaiting Israel’s response to Iran’s massive October 1st missile barrage on the Jewish state. The White House, fearful of a wider regional war, is exerting massive (albeit mostly quiet) pressure for Jerusalem to limit its retaliation to something “proportionate” that doesn’t target either Iran’s nuclear program or its energy sites.
As the war in Ukraine heads toward its third anniversary, the question on the minds of many Americans is, why do the Ukrainians keep fighting? The conventional wisdom argues that after nearly three years of killing, the war must end — something possible only through the surrender of Ukrainian land occupied by Russian forces. Yet polls consistently find that nearly 70% of Ukrainians oppose ceding land for peace. Why? Because giving up land means surrendering to life under Russian occupation. Ukrainians know from history what that means; to prevent it, they are willing to endure the deaths of thousands more of their soldiers and the destruction of many of their cities and towns.