Russia’s Central Bank raised its key policy rate to 21 percent in late October as the Russian authorities struggle to manage a wartime economy that is in danger of overheating due to a combination of factors including rising inflation, sanctions pressure, and record defense sector spending. While Kremlin officials and many international analysts insist that
As the Israel-Gaza war continues and expands regionally, Atlantic Council nonresident fellow Stefanie H. Ali spoke to Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin on October 15 to discuss how Israelis view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ongoing conflict, and the future. Scheindlin is a Tel Aviv-based public opinion researcher and political advisor who has worked on nine national
Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving on several fronts simultaneously, both military and political, to take advantage of a United States that is distracted and divided ahead of next week’s presidential election. Putin’s risky move to bring thousands of North Korean soldiers to Russia to fight Ukraine, and his doubling down to push for pro-Kremlin
Author’s Note: This piece provides updates to the October 31, 2023 article “Israel claims it is no longer occupying the Gaza Strip. What does international law say?” as well as the February 16, 2024 article “Could the US and other states be implicated in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel?” On July 19, the International
From the very beginning of the armed conflict ignited by the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, US officials have counseled their Israeli counterparts to identify achievable political objectives and embed them in whatever military operations might ensue. “Don’t make the mistakes we made in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” warned the Americans. “Understand that in
Click on the banner above to explore the Tiger Project. Almost on a weekly cadence now, a new headline spotlights the growing flow of artillery shells and ballistic missiles from North Korea to Russia and then to the battlefield in Ukraine. On October 23, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the latest development: North Korea
North Korea has sent troops to Russia, United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on October 23. Austin is the latest senior Western official to raise the alarm over the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia amid fears that the Hermit Kingdom is poised to participate directly in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President
Hamas’s recent alleged killing of an aid worker from a US-based nonprofit highlights the security challenges looming in Gaza’s postwar future. On September 27, Islam Hejazy, the Gaza program manager of the US nonprofit HEAL Palestine, was shot and killed by multiple gunmen in a drive-by shooting in Khan Younis. While Hamas claimed the incident
Hostage and wrongful detention cases remain a key US national security priority regardless of the fact that they represent a relatively small number of instances, as their impacts reverberate well beyond the hostage and their family. Countries like China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have adopted the practice of wrongful detention—hostage-taking by state actors—precisely because they
In 1982, up to six divisions of the Israeli army charged into Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). They reached the outskirts of Beirut in nine days, launching a two-month siege of the Lebanese capital that ended with the departure of the PLO. In the 2006 war against Hezbollah, Israel anticipated that
