[caption id="attachment_14313" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 11/21/2011 - On November 1, 2011, Turkey officially extended its command of the all-important region of Afghanistan’s Kabul region for another year. Furthermore, Istanbul hosted two vital multinational meetings on November 1 and 2 designed to support international peace efforts…
[caption id="attachment_20891" align="alignleft" width="98" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 11/17/2011 - As Nicholas Eberstadt, Murray Feshbach, and other scholars have noted, the Russian Federation has been experiencing an unrelenting demographic crisis throughout its two-decade history. Russia’s population has been shrinking more, and for a longer time, than almost any…
11/16/2011 - by Dr. Richard Weitz Despite the inevitable charges of electoral fraud, Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election seems to have gone reasonably well. An end to Kyrgyzstan’s political instability would be good for the entire region. The earlier political violence in that country threatened U.S. and Russian military installations as well…
11/14/2011 by Dr. Richard Weitz The Russian government is turning its attention to revitalizing Russia’s fleet of cruise-missile and multi-purpose attack submarines. They are able to do so with the apparent completion of Russia’s fourth-generation Project Mk 955 Borey-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine and its new RSM-56 Bulava (NATO code…
11/06/2011 - by Richard Weitz A month ago, the International Crisis Group (ICG) released a report entitled, “Turkey: Ending The PKK Insurgency,” which offered sensible advice regarding how to make progress resolving Turkey’s Kurdish issue. The thrust of their recommendations was to move the struggle for Kurdish rights from the…
10/31/2011 - by Richard Weitz October 24, UN Day, was not marked with joyous celebrations in Turkey. The Turks we met on our trip earlier this month universally share the general critique common in many of the emerging powers -- that the United Nations is unrepresentative and, in reflecting the…
10/25/2011 - By Dr. Richard Weitz During our time in Turkey, a key issue of interest was getting an update on their relationship with Iran. Although we were in Turkey for only one week, it was evident that Turkey’s relationship with Iran is complex. The two countries cooperate in some…
10/22/2011 - By Franck Znaty The current US administration sees Turkey as a model to be replicated for Arab and Muslim countries. It is viewed as a Muslim majority country within secular institutions, western ally and NATO member, with a strong economy and pro-market policies, a newly-found tight control of…
