Eric Jones

Xinjiang, the restive northwestern province of China, experienced yet another attack by Uighur separatists this past Sunday. Rocked by a series of explosive detonations, initial reports stated that two civilians were reported killed in the blasts. The New York Times reported: The blasts, which occurred Sunday, were the latest outbreak of violence to hit Xinjiang […]

As noted in Part One of this two-part series, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will open a summit this week in Wales. Among the issues at the forefront of debate, discussion, and strategizing sessions at the summit will obviously be the degeneration of security in Eastern Ukraine and, specifically, the influence of the Russian […]

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) prepares to open a summit this week in Wales, at least two international issues will be front and center in the effort to craft strategic vision for the alliance in the years ahead. Russian aggression and intervention in Ukraine and the battle against the onslaught of the Islamic […]

Last week, I posted a story on Uzra, a woman in the Afghan province of Nuristan.  After her village in northern Barg-i-Matal District was attacked by a reported 300 insurgents, a member of her family was killed. Uzra picked up a weapon and, over the course of two hours, began killing members of the insurgent […]

Abkhazia held a presidential election this past Sunday. Outside of the dwindling circle of Western Caucasus observers, few noted the importance of the election or even that it occurred. Why does it matter? The Caucasus is a pivotal region and the geographic point where the geostrategic interests of several prospective hegemons, countries with long-term interests […]

Buried beneath the wall-to-wall coverage of the war in Gaza, the simmering conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the plight of Yezidis beset upon by the barbaric hordes of ISIS, the ebola outbreak in Africa, and the media’s insistence on ignoring the war in Afghanistan was an important (and yet largely unrecognized) event this past month in […]

In Part One of this series, Russia and the West: NATO (Birth, Adulthood, and Evolution), I examined the history of the Atlantic Alliance, its hallmark moments, and how the mission of the alliance has shifted from collective defense to collective security since its inception in 1949. Additionally, I touched on the issue of enlargement, noting […]

I’m taking the opportunity to digress from my usual international relations pieces today for an opportunity to write an opinion piece. In completing a graduate program in the study of foreign policy, students are inevitably faced with the task of ranking the foreign policy successes, failures, and management styles of American presidents. Writers are also […]

The secessionist movement in Eastern Ukraine galvanized the attention of the world with the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Donetsk on July 17. Many of those now paying specific attention to the intensifying conflict in Eastern Europe’s largest nation-state have begun researching the history of conflict throughout the former Soviet states of Russia’s […]

In the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17 and the subsequent intensifying insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, the world leaders and policy professionals have begun to re-assesses the state of burgeoning conflict between the globe’s preeminent powers: the United States/European community and Russia. Policymakers, politicians and leaders in international organizations have begun the process […]

In the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, influential personalities in the United States have begun confidently inserting themselves into the debate on American foreign policy. Specifically, the aforementioned have been speaking with forthrightness on the territorial battles in Eastern Europe. Politicians, public intellectuals, academics, and policy wonks have been commenting publicly on an increasingly confrontational […]

The advancing onslaught of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq has left observers scrambling. Analysts have published articles and referenced history in an effort to explain why the timing of the surge is significant and how the current strategic and tactical efforts of the network support an overarching motivation and goal. […]