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.
The Taliban's expanding international profile;
Palestinian public opinion begins to shift, finally;
Islamism surges in Somalia;
Flashpoint: West Africa
Whoever ends up winning the White House next month will need to reframe the way America thinks about Great Power Competition in order to adequately respond to the collective threat now posed by Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. Doing so will begin by answering a fateful question—Is the United States still prepared to serve as the "arsenal of democracy"?
Thinking creatively about penalizing Russia;
Trouble in the Russian oil trade;
Moscow meddles in Armenia;
Russia is running out of resources