Pakistan Takes Wind out of India’s Sails by Turning North-South Transport Corridor Into One Belt–One Road

Pakistan Takes Wind out of India’s Sails by Turning North-South Transport Corridor Into One Belt–One Road

The North-South Transport Corridor is a joint initiative of nations who have built and continue to expand shipping and road links between South Asia, Northern Eurasia and Europe. The map below shows the basic route which beings with a shipping lane between India and Iran’s Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, before travelling north…

Russian Army in Damascus

Russian Army in Damascus

Washington has decided to relegate its project for the destruction of states and societies in the Greater Middle East to second place in its preoccupations, and to concentrate its forces on opposing the Chinese project for the Silk Road. This has apparently been implemented by President Donald Trump and the Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm…

The Changing Role and Position of Turkish Armed Forces in Turkish Foreign Policy

The Changing Role and Position of Turkish Armed Forces in Turkish Foreign Policy

The Turkish Armed Forces have been discussed substantially during the last few years in the context of Turkish Foreign Policy due to new developments in the military; such as building a military base in Qatar and Somalia, technological transformation, the S400 strategic defence system deal with Russia, and operations in Iraq and particularly in Syria….

Syria, Turkey, Russia and the Kurds: the Struggle for Afrin

Syria, Turkey, Russia and the Kurds: the Struggle for Afrin

The complexities of the fighting in Afrin have – unsurprisingly – confounded most people, to the points where understanding of what is actually going on there is becoming very difficult and is causing much misunderstanding. Deciphering Russian policy with respect to the Afrin conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is causing special problems. The most…

Damascus Might Have Made a Grave Mistake by Helping the Eastern YPG Enter Afrin

Damascus Might Have Made a Grave Mistake by Helping the Eastern YPG Enter Afrin

In hoping to play the “lesser evil” of the “federalist” Kurds off against the “greater evil” of the invading Turks, Damascus might have inadvertently committed a grave mistake by opening the Afrin gates to the most radical members of the YPG who stand to reverse any “pragmatic” agreements that the government thought they had achieved…