STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
The Balkans in the Changing World
The Balkan states are gaining in strategic importance, particularly Serbia.
SOVEREIGNTY
A New Middle East Has Emerged
It is an all-new greater Middle East, and the locals mostly now answer to themselves.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
STRATEGIC TRAJECTORIES | The Endless Saga of Balkan Mischief
Washington and London are taking advantage of the distraction of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to maneuver against Russia’s allies — or, more logically, Russia’s perceived allies — in the Balkans. Washington and London are working to broaden the proxy war against Russia.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Surviving the First Shot
It is said that no plan of campaign survives beyond the first shot fired. But, in the case of the Russia-Ukraine military campaign of February-March 2022, and — most importantly — all that contrived to its beginning, some trends and lessons are already visible.
CRIME & CORRUPTION
Terror and Crime: The Indissoluble Marriage’s Second Honeymoon
Contact and cooperation between militant groups and organized crime — an historical match of illegals — has flourished since the early 1990s, eroding political stability around the world.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Amorphous Warfare: Genocide is Alive and Well in Africa
The Oromo war against Ethiopian nationalists and ethnic Amhara peoples is driven by small extremist groups, supported by foreign governments. But it is virulent and gaining traction. Moreover, its impact is strategic.
Albania
Balkans: Adriatic Sleight of Hand
Montenegro’s “religious freedom” law has become part of a pattern of East-West rivalry which includes US and EU attempts to see Moscow’s influence in Orthodoxy curtailed.
PERSONNEL
Key Transitions and Defense and Intelligence Appointments - 04/2020
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Pivot: Did NATO’s Serbian War Set the Stage for the Decline of Western Power?
Is the US only now starting to regain some of an element of strategic military impetus after the peaking of its capabilities and prestige became evident with the Clinton War against Serbia in 1999? The war spurred Beijing and Moscow into reviewing their defenses.
SOVEREIGNTY
A New “East-West” Fault Line
A new strategic framework is possible in which the US could regain some leverage in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean. And it could see a resolution of the Kosovo problem which has dogged US credibility in the region since 2008.
PERSONNEL
Key Transitions and Defense & Intelligence Appointments - 09/2019
SOVEREIGNTY
CURRENT ESTIMATE | A Window of Opportunity Opens for the US in the Balkans
Events have conspired in the Eastern Mediterranean to open a new chapter of strategic opportunity for the United States, just as US-Turkish relations have moved into a profound downward direction.