Russia

The conflict began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The war in the Donbas has been in a state of frozen conflict since May of 2014. As the upcoming Ukrainian presidential elections…

Moscow and Tokyo are negotiating the status of the Kuril Islands, which have been an integral part of Russia for over seventy years.The Kuril Islands were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of…

In previous years, interest in the Middle East was largely focused on ISIS (DAESH). This year, however, that focus will shift towards Iran. As the threat from the extremist Sunni group dwindled,…

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), corruption appears to be on the rise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. To the well-read citizen, this is not surprising.…

Is Germany the missing link in the Sea of Azov dispute? When the Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Partushev, claimed in mid-January that the continuation of policies “by the Kiev…

Besides having long term economic consequences for both the British and the European economies, Brexit will likely have security implications that may weaken the interlocking web of Western…

On September 26, 2018, Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov and his Ingush counterpart Yunus-bek Yevkurov signed a bill initiating a land swap between Chechnya and Ingushetia. In the following months,…

Modern wars are fought with eyes and ears on the ground, air, and cyberspace. In Afghanistan, the U.S. and its allies have deployed cutting-edge aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance…

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected by land, air, sea, and cyberspace, tensions and uncertainty are growing. These trends are particularly evident in Europe, where elections, treaties,…

The concept of information operations (IO) has entered into our everyday lexicon without a precise definition. Any stated definition of information operations is relative to the context. IO remains a…

For over four years, Western governments and international organizations have levied increased sanctions on Russia. Sanctions were first imposed in 2014 when the United States and European Union…

The same week NASA announced the successful landing of its probe InSight on Mars, violence erupted in Kabul, Afghanistan. A rogue militia commander’s arrest by government security forces triggered…