Special Reports

Special Reports provide in-depth analysis on a particular topic or issue and provide policy recommendations.

What’s At Stake in Ukraine: European Security in a Broader Context

  Executive Summary Virtually all of the commentary on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has focused on those two states to the exclusion of the vital importance of this war for the neighboring regions of Belarus and the Balkans. This...

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Turkey’s Evolving Geopolitical Strategy in the Black Sea

Executive Summary  Turkey’s strategic position between Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia places it at a pivotal crossroads in Eurasian geopolitics, particularly as regional conflicts reshape power dynamics and international alliances. Turkey’s strategic significance has long been underscored...

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Countering a “Great Jihad” in Central Asia

  Concerns about Islamic extremism are rising in Central Asia. None of the governments in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, or Uzbekistan are commenting publicly about any specific threats. Still, there is a lot of activity aimed at controlling how...

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A Critical Analysis of the US Army’s Security Force Assistance Mission During the War on Terror

  Key Findings The U.S. Army struggled to build capable host-nation security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan because it did not give those security force assistance (SFA) missions the priority and support they deserved.  Both the selection and training...

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Russia’s Space Program After 2024

  Introduction Since 2022, Russia’s space program has been in a state of turbulence and uncertainty. However, the deterioration started in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and began the first round of the war against Ukraine. Multiple factors have...

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How Sudan’s Wars of Succession Shape the Current Conflict

Sudan Today Since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the government-sponsored paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April of 2023, according to the International Rescue Committee at least 25 million people out of a total...

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Russian Strategic Culture and the War in Ukraine

 Introduction The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, shocked the world. Currently, the Russian-Ukrainian war is the biggest European war since the end of World War II. The full-scale invasion was a continuation of unlawful actions in...

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Turning Point or Dead End? Challenging the Kremlin’s Narrative of Stability in Wartime

  Key Takeaways The Russian government expects 2024 to be a turning point in the country’s war against Ukraine. For this expectation to become reality, the Kremlin is using means of reflexive control: It projects an image of a...

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China, Russia, and Power Transition in Central Asia

    “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Thucydides, 5th Century BCE   Since the days of Thucydides, scholars have written about—and policymakers have wrestled with—the dangers...

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Russia and China in Central Asia: Potential for Direct Competition

       Executive Summary China is now undisputedly the leading economic partner for the Central Asia region, with trade and investment continuing to increase despite Beijing’s economic slowdown. Russia is still the dominant political partner for the region,...

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