• Russia Enlisting 40,000 Syrian Soldiers, Militia Members to Bolster Russia’s Forces in Ukraine

    Russia has told the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad to draw up lists of 40,000 fighters from Syrian army and militias allied with the Syrian military, and put them on standby for deployment in Ukraine. Kurds in northern Syria are sending volunteers to help Ukraine.

  • Global Arms Trade Falls Slightly, but Imports to Europe, East Asia, and Oceania Rise

    International transfers of major arms saw a slight drop between 2012–16 and 2017–21 (–4.6 per cent). Nevertheless, exports by the United States and France increased substantially, as did imports to states in Europe (+19 per cent), East Asia (+20 per cent) and Oceania (+59 per cent). Transfers to the Middle East remained high, while those to Africa and the Americas decreased, according to new data on global arms transfers published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).  

  • Germany's Military Budget: Unanswered Questions

    Germany’s defense budget is not exactly small, and it has now been given a massive defense budget boost — but it is dogged by allegations of inefficiency. The parliamentary Bundeswehr commissioner’s report was not comforting.

  • War in Ukraine Could Cut Global Supply of Essential Elements for Making Green Technology

    The EU imports 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and nearly half of the five million barrels of crude oil Russia exports daily go to Europe. Decisive action by major economies to reduce coal, oil and gas imports from one of the world’s largest sources could accelerate the transition to green energy globally. But there’s a catch. Disruption to the supply of critical metals and other materials caused by the war in Ukraine could stall the roll-out of alternative technologies.

  • Calls Mount for West to Impose No-Fly Zone, Give Jets to Ukraine

    Poland surprised the United States by offering to donate its Soviet-era MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine in exchange for advanced U.S. fighter jets to be transferred to Poland. The Polish government didn’t get the green light from the Biden administration before going public with the plan, and the Pentagon Tuesday rejected the idea as not “a tenable one.”

  • Putin May Use Chechen War Playbook in Ukraine

    The Russian military campaign in Ukraine has been slower than expected, and Vladimir Putin may turn to the indiscriminate tactics of the wars in Chechnya that turned Chechen cities to rubble in the 1990s and early 2000s, human rights activists say.

  • Is Putin Irrational? Nuclear Strategic Theory on How to Deter Potentially Irrational Opponents

    Vladimir Putin’s astonishing lapse of judgment in invading Ukraine has fueled speculation that the Russian president may have taken leave of his senses. If this assessments is accurate, then the world faces a highly disturbing situation: a mad king in possession of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. If Putin is not a rational adversary, then the policies that would deter a more-reasonable man may fail or even backfire.

  • Can Ukraine Be Saved Without Triggering a Nuclear Response?

    Worries about the war in Ukraine are deepened by the prospect that if, against the odds, Russian forces are brought to the point of defeat, Putin will launch a ‘battlefield’ or ‘tactical’ nuclear weapon to destroy the forces opposing the Russian military, and, perhaps, even attack military bases inside neighboring countries – some are NATO member states – which provide supplies to the resistance.

  • Ukrainians Fear Putin Has Chosen 'Grozny Option'

    “Grozny” is on the lips of many Ukrainians in the port city, a reference to the near destruction of the Chechen capital in late 1999 to early 2000, when Putin was prime minister and in the process of succeeding Boris Yeltsin as president.

  • As War Loomed, U.S. Armed Ukraine to Hit Russian Aircraft, Tanks and Prep for Urban Combat

    Declassified documents show that the United States substantially augmented its shipments of lethal military aid and protective equipment to Ukraine as the prospect of a Russian invasion became more apparent and then a reality. The United States has committed about $3 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

  • It’s Going to Get Worse Before It Gets Better in Ukraine

    Military and intelligence analysts and Ukraine scholars offered a somber assessment of the weeks ahead in Ukraine, saying that despite the resistance offered by Ukrainian fighters, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better, as the fighting will grow more brutal and deadly before serious talks begin.

  • How Ukraine’s Military Has Resisted Russia So Far

    Ukrainian troops are mounting a stiffer-than-expected resistance to Russian forces, to the surprise of military analysts. U.S. officials have been impressed with the fighting prowess of the Ukrainians, but their assessment that Russia has the superior military has not changed.

  • Strategic Folly in Ukraine: A War That Putin Cannot Win

    From the start, the Russian campaign has been hampered by political objectives that cannot be translated into meaningful military objectives. This underlying strategic folly has been reinforced by the tactical ineptitude with which the campaign has been prosecuted. If only for reasons of prudence, we must still assume that the Russians will be more successful in bringing the weight of their military strength to bear.

  • Putin’s Catastrophic War of Choice: Lessons Learned (So Far)

    Although the situation in Ukraine continues to evolve rapidly, there are already several vital lessons to glean from Russia’s incursion into the sovereign territory of its neighbor.

  • Why Ukraine Is Key to Russia's Pursuit of Great Power Status

    Putin believes that Russia has no choice but to remain as one of the agenda-setting powers of the world. His view of “sovereign democracy” is that a Russia that lacks the wherewithal to defend itself from outside pressure will find itself forced to adopt Western standards or a Chinese diktat.