In recent years, Russian mercenaries in West Africa have gained considerable notoriety for, on the one hand, propping up post-coup military juntas and, on the
In this Orion Talks conversation, hosted by Suat Cubukcu, Dr. Colin Clarke explores the potential implications of Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House.
Our Non-resident Fellow, Selcan Karabektas’s article “Russia’s Growing Military Footprint in Africa: Arms Deals and Defense Cooperation” has been listed in RAND Corporation’s Monthly Snapshot Selection!
In February of 2022, Russian forces invaded Eastern Ukraine, sparking the most intense conventional conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Three months later, historically neutral Finland and Sweden submitted letters of application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Two years into the conflict, it’s time to take stock: NATO has expanded, alliance members have raised their defense spending, and Russia’s credibility has degraded. Russia has responded, ramping up cyber threats and disinformation operations in the “near abroad” and strengthening its partnerships with revisionist actors like China.
Even though political and economic sanctions following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine have led to a recent decline in the Russian arms trade, in recent
The advent of hypersonic technology may well redefine the limits of military power, and Russia’s recent deployment of a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile (HCM; a
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched “Al-Aqsa Flood,” an operation within Israeli territory. Subsequent developments heightened the risk of escalating the military conflict between Israel
After two coups in both Burkina Faso and Mali in the past three years and another coup in Guinea in 2021, Niger became the latest
In this Orion Talks conversation, Dr. Colin Clarke discusses the implications of the killing of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the Wagner Group, for the
The killing of Prigozhin has understandably elicited many analyses of Russia as a lawless mafia state. There’s something to that interpretation. But, it’s also somewhat
