Archive for the ‘geopolitics’ Category
September 1, 2011
China is developing both advanced technologies and asymmetric doctrines to challenge US dominance in the upper atmosphere and orbital geopolitical spheres. The Diplomat reports on recent Chinese advances in developing a ballistic missile defense shield, which was noted as a cause for attention in the recent US Department of Defense report on China. Russia is also building its own missile defense shield, and is offering it European nations as an alternative to a US system, while at the same time pressuring those nations to reject that system and even to ban US Navy ships that carry such systems from their waters.
Concurrent with the Pentagon China report, Taiwan also issued its own annual report on the capabilities of the Chinese military last month. Naval War College scholar and China expert Andrew Erickson has an early, rough translation of this report, and this section that he highlights is alarming:
Under the guidance to “balance nuclear and conventional,” the PLA has continued the development of independently targetable intercontinental range ballistic missiles, strengthened strategic nuclear intimidation, nuclear counter strike and conventional precision strike capabilities, and deployed anti-ship middle range ballistic missiles (DF-21D guided missile), which is a weapon developed to strike aircraft carriers; a small quantity of the missiles were produced and deployed in 2010, increasing the difficulty of military maneuvers in the region for the U.S. Army.
Erickson also has an important post on relative US and Chinese space power. While the US retains a very large lead in space based assets, China is both catching up rapidly and also developing relatively inexpensive asymmetric capabilities that can destroy or disrupt the very expensive US systems. Erickson is generally speaking essential reading on China (his site is permanently linked under the Foreign Policy and Strategy links section on the right side of this page), and this post in particular is informative. Go read the whole thing.
Posted in China, geopolitics, missile defense, Russia | Tagged China, geopolitics, missile defense, russia, space | 1 Comment »
August 31, 2011
Yoshihiko Noda was elected president of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), thus becoming the third DPJ leader to become Japan’s Prime Minister since taking power in 2009. While the DPJ came to power questioning the long time alliance with the United States and seeking to warm relations with China, both of those positions have subsequently softened and both previous DPJ PMs moved closer to the US. Read this excellent summary of recent Japanese politics and foreign policies from this month’s Foreign Affairs for background.
Noda seems to be the most pro-American of the three DPJ leaders. Although reconstruction from the Great Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami, as well as dealing with the crippled Fukushima reactors, will dominated Noda’s agenda, he will not be able to long escape attending to Japan’s role in the growing competition between China and Japan for Asia/Pacific hegemony. China is already beginning to apply pressure. As Elizabeth Economy at the Council on Foreign Relations’ Asia Unbound blog writes:
While Premier Wen Jiabao and the Chinese Foreign Ministry have offered up short congratulatory statements to the new prime minister, most Chinese commentary has ranged from bleak to belligerent. Chinese analysts point out that the prime minister has not renounced his comments to the effect that Class-A Japanese wartime leaders should no longer be considered criminals nor has he committed not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine. He also has made reference to China’s rising nationalism and naval activities as posing a risk to regional stability. To top it all off, the new prime minister has been a strong supporter of the U.S.-Japan defense alliance.
Economy also notes several “suggestions” that the Chinese have for Prime Minister Noda that read like a list of demands from a master to a vassal. Japan is an indispensible linchpin of the US alliance system. EGP hopes that the US offers Noda a genuine attitude of partnership to counterpoint China’s immediate attitude of high handedness.
Posted in China, Coalitioning, geopolitics, Japan | Tagged China, coalitioning, geopolitics, Japan | Leave a Comment »
August 31, 2011
Walter Russell Mead tells us that this nascent reformulation of the core of the former Soviet Union is not a matter for undue concern, but we disagree. There is reason for cautious alarm. First of all, this is another indication that the coalitioning period of the current Long Cycle phase is apace (with the consequent macrodecision looming), and such indications always have to be noted with concern. Also, Putin is (arguably) influenced by Eurasianist theorists whose goal is a unified continental system on a Berlin/Moscow/Beijing axis. Russian Eurasianists, of course, see this system naturally dominated by Russia, but certainly the Germans and Chinese would have other ideas. That the system might be unwieldy and ultimately collapse does not change the fact that a Heartland unification is the Mackinderian fear that has obsessed Anglo-American geopolitical theorists for over a century. Eurasianism is a direct challenge to the Atlanticism that has defined the contours of the World System for half a millenium. While some would argue that the last 500 years have been an aberration and a shift to a Eurasia-centric system is a return to normalcy, the parochial interests of the West in general and of the United States in particular demand that we seek to extend that aberrational period as long as possible.
Posted in Atlanticism, Eurasianism, geopolitics, Long Cycle Theory, Russia, World System | Tagged Atlanticism, Eurasianism, russia, World System | 1 Comment »
August 23, 2011
James Holmes, writing at The Diplomat blogs, describes China’s nearly completed 5000 kilometer network of nuclear missile silos buried deep within the nation’s rugged mountain region. Holmes notes that such a network may mark a significant change in strategic thinking for China, which has always held to a “minimalist” stance in nuclear deterrence. This hardened network is potentially far more robust, although China still lacks the two other legs of the traditional strategic deterrent triad – ballistic missile submarines (which they are struggling to make operational) and an intercontinental bomber force. Still, this might be yet another sign that China intends to achieve full strategic parity with the US in the near future.
Posted in China, geopolitics | Tagged China, geopolitics, nuclear deterrent | 1 Comment »
August 18, 2011
Anticipating a potential asteroid collision in 2036, Chinese researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing have come up with a plan to build a solar sail that would launch years in advance, intercept the asteroid up to a year before the imminent collision, and push it enough off course so that it would miss the Earth.
Yes, this is all more than a little fantastic, but things like this help China to build it’s soft power bona fides. Actually, given the enormous expense of such an endeavor, this would be a combination of hard and soft power, using Walter Russel Mead’s definitions of “sticky” power (economic muscle) as an aspect of hard power and “sweet” power (attractive ideals) as an aspect of soft power.
Posted in geopolitics | Tagged asteroid strike, China, geopolitics, power | Leave a Comment »
August 16, 2011
The Chinese Defense Ministry has confirmed the existence of so-called “blue units,” autonomous formations that conduct cyberwarfare on opponents. Many of these units operate from long distance bomber aircraft, sniffing out and attacking enemy computing and communications.
From the South China Morning Post:
Strategically, the blue units apply in cyberspace Mao Zedong’s doctrine of guerilla warfare – the concept of avoiding direct confrontation with big and powerful enemies such as the United States. Mao abandoned big cities when taking on the invading Japanese and anti-communist Nationalists. He established strongholds in less-developed rural areas and constantly hit the enemy’s regular armies with small bands of guerillas. He also mobilised large peasant militias to fight powerful but less numerous enemies. It was a strategy that eventually proved successful.
Decades later, that approach to warfare is guiding the PLA’s operations in cyberspace, according to a 2006 paper by Dr Wan Dongsheng , a cyberwar specialist with the PLA’s Electronic Engineering Institute. Wan says that any confrontation between China and the US in cyberspace today would have many similarities with those earlier wars. Again it would be a case of seemingly less-developed technology squaring off against a more advanced one, involving many people against a few. China might lose considerable ground in the early phase of war, but the guerilla strategy would consume the enemy and grind it down at enormous cost.
China’s guerilla attacks would avoid defence strongholds such as military command centres. Instead, it would target civilian sectors such as the power grid, financial system, international trade, transport and even hospitals to cause the greatest damage, given that more than 95 per cent of the US military’s network is connected to the internet.
Wan says a prolonged guerilla war in cyberspace would require the mobilisation of the people, and the military and government should plan for a total cyberwar, giving the country’s hundreds of millions of internet users professional guidance, training and organisation.
As always, read the whole thing.
Posted in China, cyberwarfare, geopolitics | Tagged China, cyberwarfare, geopolitics | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2011
From “Schumpeter’s” column in The Economist:
Businesspeople still enjoy huge advantages from being in America. Business is part of its DNA in much the same way that la dolce vita is part of Italy’s. America has a disproportionate number of the world’s most innovative businesses, from greybeards such as 3M to toddlers such as Salesforce.com. And Americans are to management what Brazilians are to soccer. After studying 10,000 firms in 20 countries, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and three other academics concluded that American firms are the world’s best managed, with German, Japanese and Swedish firms a short way behind and Chinese and Indian ones trailing badly.
Yet America’s politicians are intent on squandering this painfully accumulated capital. As it revoked America’s triple-A credit rating on August 5th, Standard & Poor’s explained that the gulf between the political parties was becoming unbridgeable, and that policymaking was becoming unpredictable. Other sober institutions concur. The World Economic Forum has downgraded America from second place in 2009 to fourth place in 2010 in its annual global competitiveness rankings. By the forum’s reckoning, America comes a lowly 40th for the quality of its institutions, 54th for trust in its politicians, 68th for government waste and a dismal 87th for its macroeconomic environment. The World Bank sees a relentless decline in various indicators of American governance. Daniel Kaufmann of the Brookings Institution notes that last year 33% of American business leaders told pollsters that a big constraint was the “instability of the policy framework”. The figure for France was 14%; for Chile, 5%.
As per usual, read the whole thing. My only issue is that this is too Big Business-centric. To be sure, Big Business occupies an important role in the United States, but both parties have forgotten the crucial role that small business plays in American society. Small business is the largest jobs generator and an indispensable source of innovation. This is why I have such sympathy for the Tea Party, as I see that movement primarily as a genuine Main Street populism powered by sole proprietors, small business owners and entrepreneurs both actual and wannabe. Their interests have to have a seat at the table co-equal with – if not ahead of – both Big Business and Labor.
Posted in geopolitics, politics | Tagged business, geopolitics, strategy | Leave a Comment »
August 11, 2011
Op Ed from the Asia Times that adds detail from our post yesterday. We focused on the dangers to India’s eastern coast from the ongoing creep of Chinese naval power; Michael Kugelman’s op ed for the Times echoes that point, but expands on the strategic importance of India’s western approaches:
It is energy security, however, that most starkly illuminates the navy’s significance. With indigenous energy supplies unable to satisfy prodigious demand (the country is projected to become the world’s third-largest energy consumer by 2030), India has developed a severe addiction to overseas hydrocarbons. Today, two-thirds of India’s oil consumption originates abroad.
Most of these energy resources, along with the transit routes used to bring them home, are sea-based and situated in volatile regions. From offshore assets in the turbulent Persian Gulf to piracy-riven sea lanes off the coast of Somalia, India faces constant threats of energy supply shocks. Additionally, even as India strengthens its own offshore energy infrastructure (several thousand kilometers of pipeline have been laid to facilitate oil and gas flow from offshore platforms to onshore terminals), they remain vulnerable to attack by militants.
India has a large and impressive navy. The convergence of interests in the Indian Ocean should compel the US to form a more active naval alliance with the world’s largest democracy. India should be a linchpin in an alliance of the other great powers of Mackinder’s Outer Crescent – the US, Great Britain, Japan, Australia and India.
Posted in China, geopolitics, India, navy | Tagged geopolitics, India, Navy, strategy | 1 Comment »
August 10, 2011
On the day the the People’s Liberation Army Navy officially took to sea with it’s first aircraft carrier, named Varyag, Taiwan introduced the Hsiung Feng 3, their own version of a “carrier killer” anti-ship missile, complete with a mural depicting an attack on the Varyag.
Artist's rendition of Hsiung Feng 3 attacking the PLAN Varyag
Posted in China, geopolitics, navy | Tagged China, geopolitics, naval power, Taiwan | Leave a Comment »
August 10, 2011
The Indian Navy’s Eastern Command has nearly doubled it’s warship total from 30 in 2005 to 50 today. They are additionally planning to build new naval facilities along the east coast, and to re-assign the navy’s lone aircraft carrier to the East once they take receipt of their second carrier, purchased from Russia.
The Indian Navy has traditionally been focused on the Western Command, where their longtime rival Pakistan sits astride the vital sea lanes from the Persian Gulf and Europe. But the increased Chinese presence in South East Asia is forcing both an expansion of Indian naval assets and a fortification of the eastern approaches.
Report from the Calcutta Telegraph
Posted in China, geopolitics, India, navy | Tagged China, geopolitics, India, naval power | 1 Comment »
August 9, 2011
The usually prescient Spengler has been ringing this bell for months. His latest:
Erdogan’s bubble recalls Argentina in 2000 or Mexico in 1994, where a brief boom financed by short-term foreign capital flows led to currency devaluation and a deep economic slump. In the advent of the June 12 national elections, which returned Erdogan as prime minister, the Turkish government bought votes through cheap credit.
. . . Financing higher consumption with short-term debt helps explain why Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) crushed its secular opposition in the elections. Erdogan campaigned on his success as an economic manager rather than his Islamist ambitions, with good reason, for most Turks cares more about material welfare than the AKP’s religious agenda.
An economic slump would undercut Erdogan’s ability to govern. His confrontation with his country’s military leaders, who last week resigned en masse to protest the persecution of senior officers on fanciful allegations of political crimes, points to the deep fissure in Turkish politics.
. . . Now that the Cairo mob has turned against the “Internet-savvy” protesters on Tahrir Square, Libya and Yemen remain immersed in civil war, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime butchers civilians, there is not a single stable polity in the Arab world outside of Saudi Arabia, whose circumstances are unique. What I called “the Internet bubble in Middle East politics” in a February 16 essay (See here) has popped, to the embarrassment of the Western reporters who drooled over the Internet cafe-flies who prompted Egypt’s popular rebellion. If it turns out – as I predict – that the “Turkish model” differed little from the old Latin American borrow-and-bully model, we should conclude that no successful political model presently exists in the Muslim world.
Read the whole thing. The question that follows is: In which direction does Turkey turn for help? The West is teetering financially and may not be able to help. Does a failure of “the Turkish model” push Turkey further into the Russian/Chinese orbit?
Posted in geopolitics, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Turkey | Tagged geoeconomics, geopolitics, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Turkey | Leave a Comment »
August 3, 2011
This report from the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) updates the latest in disputes over oil rights in the South China Sea (see recent EGP post on the SCS here).
Meanwhile, the Times of India reports that China is expanding its reach into the Indian Ocean for the first time, seeking to mine the seabed for minerals. India has been nervously watching as China builds its “String of Pearls” from the Arabian to the South China Seas, this is just the latest manifestation of the new Chinese imperialism.
Posted in China, geopolitics, India, oil, South China Sea, strategic geography | Tagged China, geopolitics, India, oil, South China Sea | Leave a Comment »
August 1, 2011
I wrote over the weekend how the situation in Iraq is suddenly crumbling while the (what should have been) certain victory in Libya is also slipping away. The Obama Administration is preparing the ground for a withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Arab Spring has swept away our longtime ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Turkey is turning its back on secularism, and casting eyes toward our rivals Russia and China in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. With American power and prestige in the region in obvious decline, even the linchpin of American strategy in the region – stalwart ally Saudi Arabia – is seeking an entente with our regional nemesis, Iran. From Stratfor lst month: Something extraordinary, albeit not unexpected, is happening in the Persian Gulf region. The United States, lacking a coherent strategy to deal with Iran and too distracted to develop one, is struggling to navigate Iraq’s fractious political landscape in search of a deal that would allow Washington to keep a meaningful military presence in the country beyond the end-of-2011 deadline stipulated by the current Status of Forces Agreement. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, dubious of U.S. capabilities and intentions toward Iran, appears to be inching reluctantly toward an accommodation with its Persian adversary.
Is this the end of the American Era in the Greater Middle East, or can the decline be reversed – or at least halted – by a renewed focus by the current Administration? Perhaps, after being frustrated and dominated by the Republicans in Congress (and with domestic policy making hamstrung by the stagnant economy), the White House will seek to make a mark in foreign policy. This is a pivotal moment for a United States that has been operating
without a coherent grand strategy for half a decade. Let’s hope the Administration siezes the opportunity before any more dominoes fall.
Posted in Afghanistan, Coalitioning, energy geopolitics, geopolitics, Grand Strategy, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Middle East, Obama, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, strategic energy ellipse, strategic geography, Turkey | Tagged geopolitics | 1 Comment »
July 30, 2011
via BBC:
A top US adviser on Iraq has accused the US military of glossing over an upsurge in violence, just months before its troops are due to be withdrawn.
Iraq is more dangerous now than a year ago, said a report issued by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W Bowen Junior.
He said the killing of US soldiers and senior Iraqi figures, had risen, along with attacks in Baghdad .
The report contradicts usually upbeat assessments from the US military.
It comes as Washington is preparing to withdraw its remaining 47,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year, despite fears that the Iraqi security forces might not be ready to take over fully.
“Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work,” Mr Bowen concluded in his quarterly report to Congress. “It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago.”
The report cited the deaths of 15 US soldiers in June – the bloodiest month for the American military in two years – but also said more Iraqi officials had been assassinated in the past few months than in any other recent period.
I though as recently as a month ago that Barack Obama would be able to campaign in 2012 as the president who got Bin Laden, who deposed Gaddafi, and who presided over the last act of a minor victory in Iraq. Today, it looks like only the first is a sure thing. The Libya operation, which should have been a certain victory of grinding attrition, is on the cusp of failure (see also here, here, here and here)- an unbelievable outcome that seems to require almost willful mismanagement. Suddenly, the Obama 2012 campaign looks to running on the rails of debt and defeat. Given the structural advantage of the Democrats in the Electoral College, the powers of incumbency, and the very large Obama war chest, I had long assumed that re-election was inevitable. As inevitable as a victory in Libya, perhaps? But there is nothing so certain that it cannot be lost by an incompetent executive.
Posted in 2012 election, geopolitics, Iraq, Libya, Obama | Tagged 2012 election, geopolitics, Iraq, Libya, obama | 1 Comment »
July 29, 2011
Major study out this month from the Baker Institute on Shale Gas and US National Security. The report is very detailed and anyone interested in energy and geopolitics (which should be anyone who reads EnerGeoPolitics) should read the whole thing. In summary, the report identifies the following major impacts of the US shale bonanza:
- Eliminates the US need for gas importation
- Reduces pressure on Middle East & Persian Gulf reserves
- Reduces reliance on Russian, Iranian and Venezualan gas and prevents their formation of a GASPEC (gas OPEC) and limits the use of gas as an energy weapon
- Will reduce global gas prices
- As a clean(er) burning fuel, aids in meeting greenhouse gas reduction goals
- Reduces the possibility of Sino-American conflict over gas supplies
Posted in China, energy geopolitics, energy security, geopolitics, Iran, Middle East, natural gas, Russia | Leave a Comment »
June 23, 2011
Short take: We support it. To us, Afghanistan only made sense in conjunction with Iraq. The two operations together brought the US a ring of allies and operational bases in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf that allowed a physical containment of Iran. We have argued for years that should have always been the larger geopolitical objective. Absent that, the operation in Afghanistan should have been a punishment operation meant to shatter al Qaeda on the ground, but with no need for a long term commitment to the nation.
Once the Iraq project was largely abandoned and other US allies in the region began dropping away, an Afghanistan commitment no longer made any sense.
To be clear, we advocated a very long term commitment to both nations, with permanent US military bases as part of a vast regional network. However, the moment to seize that opportunity passed in 2008. A strategy based on a large physical presence in Central/Southwest Asia is no longer in the cards, so it is best to redeploy as quickly as possible. Redeploy to where is the question. Neither American political party has articulated a Grand Strategy for the next decade, although people like Daniel Drezner are hard at work trying to piece one together from the various loose strands lying around.
Posted in Afghanistan, Central Asia, geopolitics, Grand Strategy, strategic geography | 1 Comment »
June 21, 2011
The South China Sea is a region rich in largely unexploited reserves of oil and natural gas. In addition to the resource reserves, it is a strategically vital shipping lane, as most of the oil for the thirsty East Asian economies must transit from the Persian Gulf through the South China Sea.
The SCS encompasses a vast area stretching from Taiwan in the northeast to Singapore in the southwest. It is peppered with hundreds of tiny islets and rock outcroppings which are variously claimed as sovereign territory by the nations bordering the seas (China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, and Malaysia.
For two decades, China has had numerous disputes with the other nations in the region over its claims to the region. In recent weeks, both Vietnam and the Philippines have had naval responses to what they see as Chinese provocations. Last week, the National Bureau for Asian Research posted an interview about the rising tensions in the region. The interview of NBR regional expert Ian Story was conducted by Tim Cook, director of the NBR’s Maritime Energy Resources project. Read the interview, but also read the excellent reports from the NBR that are also linked on that page
Posted in China, energy geopolitics, geopolitics, South China Sea | 2 Comments »
June 15, 2011
As I have written numerous times in the past (here, here and here for example), the axis of Central Asia – from the Persian Gulf, north through the Caspian Sea, and beyond into the northern regions of Central Russia – is the single most energy rich region of the planet. Dubbed the Strategic Energy Ellipse, this region contains approximately 70% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 40% of the natural gas reserves (not counting the still-to-be-tallied totals of shale gas). In a global industrial world that requires vast amounts of energy, it is the ultimate geopolitical object in an era of growing demand and (apparently) shrinking supply. The map below is a terrific representation of the SEE and its relationship to the major energy consuming regions of the world
The great powers all have vital interests in this region, and there are multiple competing alliance structures in place to support those interests. The European Union and the United States sponsor multiple NATO partnerships with nations either within the ellipse or along transit routes from the region. Apart from this, the United States has tried to form a smaller group called the Caspian Guard. Russia sponsors the Collective Security Treaty Organization, while also partnering with China in a fourth grouping called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Of these various groups, I believe that the SCO is the greatest threat to US interests in the region. All of the groupings are summarized in the table below.
Competing Alliance Structures Within and Around the Strategic Energy Ellipse
| Alliance |
Big Power Sponsor(s) |
Relevant Members (countries within the SEE or along transit routes) |
| Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) |
Russia, China |
KazakhstanKyrgyzstan
Tajikstan
Uzbekistan |
| Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) |
Russia |
ArmeniaBelarusKazakhstanKyrgyzstan
Tajikstan
Uzbekistan |
| Caspian Guard |
United States |
AzerbaijanKazakhstan |
| NATO Partnerships |
United States, European Union |
ArmeniaAzerbaijan
Belarus
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Moldava
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan |
Turkey has been a long time ally of the United States and an important member of NATO almost from the beginning (NATO was founded in 1949 and Turkey joined in 1952 – three years before core member Germany). For over half a century, Turkey represented the most powerful presence of the West in general and the United States in particular in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
Over the last decade, however, Turkey has been turning away and looking eastward (Stratfor has an excellent rundown of the deterioration of Turkeys relations with the West here).
Now, China is actively courting a deeper relationship with Turkey, including the possibility of a partial membership in the SCO. Turkey in the SCO might not by itself present a serious strategic problem for the United States, but the trajectory of Turkey’s strategic migration is a troubling complication. If Turkey moves away from the West and develops deeper ties with the Asian powers, a lynchpin of US strategic reach would disappear.
I am not sure what can be done to steer or diminish Turkey’s apparent movement away from the West. The accommodation counseled by Stratfor is, of course, a wise approach, but it may not be enough. As an important ally with a strong, diversified (i.e., not petro-based) economy and the most powerful military in the region, the Turks are in position to make demands commensurate with their status.
The AKP looks like it will remain in power for the foreseeable future, and the longer it remains, the deeper the inroads that Islamism will make into the former secular state. Now, Islamism is not necessarily incompatible with Western political values, but as presently practiced, it is incompatible with the presence of an Israeli state. As the Turks play the US, China and Russia off of one another, might Israel not become a determining factor? I believe that the US commitment to Israel is inviolable (I think that is true for the West in general, but I have little faith in the European nations honoring that commitment in the long run), but Russia and China have no such responsibility and will be free to appease any Turkish demands that might arise.
The steady movement of Turkey away from the West will represent the second most important geo-strategic change since the end of the Cold War – the rise of China being the other – and neither one of them works to the benefit of the United States.
Posted in Coalitioning, CSTO, geopolitics, Middle East, NATO, Russia, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Turkey | 3 Comments »
