Something is stirring across the vast expanse encompassing the Caucasus and Central Asia, an area of nearly 1.6 million square miles and more than 86 million people. Throughout the region, political momentum is gathering for deeper cooperation, engagement, and coordination.
Putin's mandate, and next year's election;
Are Russian hackers at it again?
Taking on (some of) Boko Haram;
The Islamic State's fallback plan;
AQAP grows in the shadows;
Turkey's border wall
Russia gets its way in Syria;
Beijing bullish on ties with Moscow
Pakistan has a long and troubled history of supporting extremists as a tool of statecraft - a policy that has, among many other things, inflamed tensions with regional rival India and roiled Islamabad's relations with Washington. Of late, however, this strategy of supporting proxies to maintain a zone of influence in the region has turned inward, with grievous consequences for the country's internal security and the cohesion of the Pakistani state itself.