RESOURCES
How the Ukraine War Has Saved Communist China
Beijing finally has the chance to throw off some of its dependency on US food supplies, giving it an enormous new lease of strategic freedom.
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.
PERSONNEL
Key Transitions and Defense and Intelligence Appointments - 02/2022
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
US-Russia: Do All Major Wars Begin With “Phony Wars”?
It started as an information dominance campaign carried out abroad to distract US voters from the unpopularity of their government, running up to new elections. But it has placed Ukraine in a no-win situation, and has already led to a profound and lasting division in NATO.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Jakarta: Balancing, Yet Moving
Indonesia's movement toward greater regional economic and strategic power is showing success, and it is occurring with excruciating care to balance its position between superpowers.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
Central Asia's Theater
How the US withdrawal from Afghanistan started a chain which led to Kazakhstan's coup
HISTORY
ESSENTIAL READING | Failure to Plan
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Persistent Intervention: The Kremlin’s Influence Operations in Ukraine
GOVERNANCE & ELECTIONS
Uzbekistan Becomes a Key Eurasian Pivot
Uzbekistan’s presidential election confirmed the nation’s retention of a strong line to cope with the collapse of neighboring Afghanistan. Tashkent is preparing for the storm.
Afghanistan
AUKUS: The Dysfunctional Birth and Accidental Promise of the West’s New Global Alliance
Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States hastily created a new global alliance, but its founders have different views of alliance priorities. AUKUS might actually work, but the US seems intent on jeopardizing Red Sea security, critical to making the bloc work.
GOVERNANCE & ELECTIONS
Global Trends: Lostpolitik
Germany’s 2021 elections accelerated the leadership vacuum in the European Union and its growing strategic irrelevance, but equally highlighted the tentative rise of a new global power framework …
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
The New “Go” Complexity of the Global “Great Game”
The chess-board of Central Asia’s “Great Game” was transformed into the intense complexity of the ancient Chinese game of Go — Weiqi — when the collapse of the latest phase of the eternal Afghan wars sent the consequences virally through global security frameworks.