Category: Blogs

Turkey’s Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria

By Adam Entous and Joe Parkinson, Wall Street Journal

“Hakan Fidan [Turkey’s powerful spymaster] is the face of the new Middle East,” says James Jeffrey, who recently served as U.S. ambassador in Turkey and Iraq.

Five More Years: On the Challenges Facing Azerbaijan’s President

By Sabine Freizer

President Ilham Aliyev is about to start his third mandate in Azerbaijan. Despite some hefty criticism by the main European elections observation mission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the elections on 9 October were the easy part. Azerbaijan has made impressive economic progress in recent years, Baku’s sparking skyline standing as […]

Regional Aligned Forces vs. Air-Sea Battle

By Derek S. Reveron

While Secretary of State John Kerry is representing the United States in Asia this week, there is a growing chorus dismissing the sincerity and depth of the planned rebalance to Asia. “For countries not closely allied with the US, Obama’s no-show [at the APEC summit] will reinforce their policy of bandwagoning with China,” wrote Carl […]

The Almost-Aid Cut to Egypt

When CNN broke the news the evening of October 8 that the United States would formally withdraw all foreign military aid to Egypt, everyone was set atwitter. Literally. Avid Egypt observers furiously took to social media to mark what would have been the most significant change to US-Egypt relations since the late 1970s.

German Military Power in an Age of Austerity

By Patrick Keller, American Enterprise Institute

Since 1990, the Bundeswehr has been undergoing constant reform.

Pentagon Builds Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Site in Romania

By Kris Osborn, DoDBuzz

The Missile Defense Agency is working with Lockheed Martin to build a land-based Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense site in Romania