Category: Expert Analysis

With the recent codification of the joint forces agreement binding Georgian breakaway region Abkhazia and Russia, observers of the South Caucasus have anxiously anticipated a similar change in Moscow’s relations with South Ossetia. You can find background on the issues involving Russian involvement in Georgia in my previous articles on Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Georgia: Russia […]

While most of the attention given in the last few months to events in Iraq and Syria has focused on the Kurdish fighters in Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava, the Kurds don’t particularly care about the rest of Iraq. The majority of the organizations moving to secure Arab Iraq are Shi’a militias, the most prominent (and powerful) […]

The massacre of 141 children and staff at Peshawar’s Army Public School in Pakistan has shaken much of the world. The images of bloodied children being carried to ambulances by paramedics, parents, and good samaritans have once again flooded our television screens. But only for a few moments. In Nigeria this past summer, many took to Twitter […]

In an earlier post, I examined some of the cartel diversification (not all of it was new by any means) that would sharply limit attempts to combat the cartels by way of marijuana legalization. Here, we’re going to narrow the focus to a few players and incidents, as an illustration of just how complicated the […]

The United States and Cuba took definitive steps to end a half-century of animosity and icy relations this holiday season, after reportedly 18 months or so of back-channel discussions between high-level representatives of each country’s presidential administration, as well as the Vatican.  The two countries used the swap of intelligence assets and an American aid […]

On December 9, 2014, Senator Diane Feinstein released the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the use of torture by the CIA following 9/11. Screams for prosecution were loud and directed toward the CIA’s apparent conflict with the Constitution and America’s values. But the timing of this release is suspect: While the predictable resulting media firestorm raged on, another very real […]

We’ve published three books that work as a surreal trilogy about the current events in the Middle East.  In Benghazi: The Definitive Report, Brandon and I wrote about how the Arab Spring migrated across the Middle East, eventually blowing up into the Libyan Civil War. While the Arab Spring had been a series of protest […]

Several media outlets have recently run articles about the impact the legalization of marijuana has been having on the Mexican cartels. Most (such as those from VICE or DailyKos) have been crowing that the legalization of pot is “crippling” the cartels. But is this a realistic view? Let’s take a look. Marijuana is legal in Alaska, […]

According to a December 4, 2014 report in The Hill, a newspaper that covers the goings-on in the U.S. Congress (please, withhold your jokes about it being a one-page newsletter, or a bi-monthly, one-page pamphlet…)

One YPG member told me about a Daash fighter he shot four times with a Dragonov sniper rifle. The jihadist went down but kept trying to get back up.

Earlier this week, Russia and the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia finalized an agreement strengthening ties between Moscow and Sukhumi. The agreement, signed in Sochi on November 24, deepens cooperation between Abkhazia and Russia, effectively integrating Abkhazia’s foreign policy with Russia’s and creating a joint military structure that places Abkhazia’s military forces under the command […]

The contemporary global security climate is entering an extremely complex and equally alarming phase. Extremist political, religious, and ethno-nationalistic enablers of modern terrorism have found no shortage of ecumenical audiences in which to spread their brutal and lethal messages to. There also appears to be no shortage of individuals willing to carry out indiscriminate acts […]