EUROPE RUSSIA Foreign Policy's Reid Standish looks at the ways Russia's neighbors are trying to counter all the fun little things that Moscow does to try to destabilize their societies: The traditional response has been to field tanks and train troops; earlier this year, NATO deployed four battalion-sized battle groups to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: October 12-13 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN The United Nations says that civilian casualties from American and Afghan airstrikes have risen 50 percent over last year. This comes amid the implementation of Donald Trump's "bomb the shit out of them and by them I mean whoever" strategy for winning the War on Terror, but notably mostly happened before Trump launched … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: October 12-13 2017

I'm posting this early to get my thoughts about Trump's Iran policy out in a timely fashion for once. I will update as needed throughout the day. SYRIA A Turkish military convoy entered Syria's Idlib province for the first time on Thursday. Remember how I guessed that the Turks and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham would probably … Continue reading Middle East update: October 12-13 2017

EUROPE RUSSIA Moscow says it may order further staff cuts to the US mission in Russia, down to 300 persons. When the Russians ordered the US to cut its staff back to 455, the same as the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the US, they decided to include people working for the Russian mission … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: October 11 2017

ASIA KYRGYZSTAN Kyrgyz voters go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president, in what should be the country's first peaceful transition of power since the fall of the Soviet Union: Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan’s first two post-Soviet presidents, were forced out of office in revolutions of 2005 and 2010. Now, … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: October 11 2017

IRAQ A suicide bomber struck a cafe and killed at least 11 people on Wednesday in the town of Heet, just northwest of Ramadi. The Iraqi commander in Hawijah officially declared the military operation there over yesterday. In the course of the fighting, which was over so quickly it almost doesn't warrant being called a "campaign," … Continue reading Middle East update: October 11 2017

I'm wrapping up early tonight to see if I can't get a decent night's sleep for a change. See you all tomorrow. MIDDLE EAST IRAQ Haider al-Abadi says ISIS should be defeated entirely in Iraq by the end of the year. Considering how quickly they've been losing ground since Mosul was liberated, this isn't an … Continue reading World update: October 10 2017

ASIA PAKISTAN At least eight people were killed in two separate attacks in Pakistan on Monday. In one, four Shiʿa Pakistanis and one bystander were killed in a shooting in Quetta, in Baluchistan province. There has been no claim of responsibility so far. In the other, three soldiers were killed in North Waziristan when their … Continue reading World update: October 9 2017

  SYRIA ISIS announced Monday that it had captured a dozen villages from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham east of Hama. The Syrian army just drove these same fighters out of a different pocket east of Hama, which means they must have opted to retreat north toward HTS territory instead of east toward the shrinking bit of … Continue reading Middle East update: October 9 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN One cornerstone of Donald Trump's totally ingenious plan to win the Afghanistan War is: air power. Damn, why hasn't anybody else thought of this? Washington is supplying the Afghan military with 159 Blackhawk helicopters and the flight training to use them. The choppers will be delivered slowly, and the training is expected to … Continue reading World update: October 7-8 2017