Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the energy ministry to work on building a gas hub in Turkey following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue, NTV and other news channels reported on Friday.
On the eve of the opening of a key Chinese Communist Party congress, party leader, head of state and commander of the armed forces Xi Jinping seems more in charge than ever, having given no indication of stepping away from power or anointing a successor.
China’s support for ruling parties undermines its ability to be an impartial arbiter of conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa and highlights China’s use of mediation to pursue its geostrategic interests.
China launched the “Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa” in March 2022 to facilitate a Chinese-led peace process in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Since then, China’s special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Xue Bing, has made a series of whirlwind visits to the region. China’s flurry of diplomatic activity in the Horn has raised eyebrows and a growing number of concerns in the region, however.
As concerns grow of a possible nuclear conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine, there are hopes China could defuse the crisis.
But Russia’s most influential ally may not have the desire or the ability to help, according to analysts.
“If any power has influence over Putin, it is China,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS University of London’s China Institute.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked Japan, its seriousness was multiplied by China’s support for Russia. Facing this new reality, Japan’s national security policy is now undergoing a historic change at an unprecedentedly fast pace.
Many countries expand their military strength as they acquire wealth. However, there are at least two important exceptions, the most important of which was the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was only after the start of the Cold War that the United States became a standing military superpower.
The European Peace Facility (EPF), the EU’s off-budget fund to replace member states’ arms donations provided to Ukraine, is struggling to cover the bulk of incoming reimbursement requests, EURACTIV has learnt.
ON OCTOBER 10th more than 300 towns and cities across Ukraine were hit with the largest Russian air bombardment since the early days of the war. It was a suitably grisly way of marking the promotion of Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s new overall commander in Ukraine. Nicknamed “General Armageddon” by his colleagues, he has a fearsome reputation hardened over decades. General Surovikin is believed to have directed the war for months—but his formal appointment on October 8th marks a cruel new chapter. Who is he, and what does his promotion reveal about the Russian invasion?
The Islamic Republic is experiencing major protests. This deep public anger is not just about the regime’s domestic policies but also resentment against its regional agenda, such as its interventions in the Arab world. Since 1979, the Islamists in Tehran have invested much in supporting Palestinian causes. But how is Iran’s track-record among the Palestinian political groups? Is Iran an enabler or a spoiler of the Palestinian cause? How has Iran so far reacted to the Abraham Accords of 2020 and does it see the idea of coexistence with Israel as a challenge to Iran’s anti-Israel model of “Axis of Resistance”? Finally, can Iran and the Gulf States that have signed the Abraham Accords perhaps find some common ground on how best to support the Palestinians in their aspirations? To discuss these issues, MEI is delighted to host a panel of experts moderated by Alex Vatanka, Senior Fellow and Director of the Iran Program.
How Putin’s War Has Hurt Russia in Central Asia and the Caucasus
The Kremlin has struggled to contain the fallout of its invasion of Ukraine. It did not imagine that its war would inspire sustained unity among Western countries, nor that the Ukrainian army would resist so well, nor that it would need to partly mobilize the Russian population, a drastic measure with potentially disastrous domestic consequences. A war intended to restore Russian strength has instead left the country weaker.
Threats, Assurances, and Effective Deterrence
As tension rises between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan, strategists on all sides seem to have forgotten what the American game theorist Thomas Schelling taught years ago: deterring an adversary from taking a proscribed action requires a combination of credible threats and credible assurances. Instead of heeding that lesson, a growing number of U.S. analysts and officials have called for the United States to treat Taiwan as if it were an independent state and to abandon the long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” in favor of “strategic clarity,” defined as an unconditional commitment to use military force to defend the island in the event of a mainland Chinese attack. These calls have intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with some commentators even advocating for formal recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign country. Still others have called for a permanent (and significant) deployment of U.S. forces to Taiwan to lend credibility to the U.S. threat of a military response to a mainland attack. In testimony before the U.S. Senate last year, Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, implied that the United States could never allow Beijing to control Taiwan because such an outcome would make it impossible to defend other U.S. allies in Asia.