Five years ago, Georgian forces crossed into the Moscow-backed separatist territory of South Ossetia, seeking to clamp down on attacks against ethnic Georgian villages along the de facto boundaries and re-establish authority over the breakaway region. Russia’s response was swift: Its troops poured into South Ossetia, pushing out Georgia’s overmatched military. When the guns were finally silenced after the short but fierce war, hundreds had been killed or wounded and tens of thousands of civilians were displaced. Although the global community refused to follow Moscow’s lead in recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia’s other separatist province, the [...]
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) moved to rein in the Turkish military last week by blocking the promotion of a high-profile commander, Gen. Bekir Kalyoncu, and instead forcing the general’s retirement. Turkish media described the move as being tied to what is called the Ergenekon case, in which military officials are accused of trying to overthrow the government. Kalyoncu’s forced retirement, combined with the life sentence handed to former military chief Gen. Ilker Basbug in the Ergenekon case, underscored the shifting state of civil-military relations in Turkey, which is marked by a [...]
Last month, India agreed to help Myanmar build offshore patrol vessels in an effort to improve ties. In an email interview, Abhijit Singh, a research fellow at New Delhi’s National Maritime Foundation tracking political and strategic developments in West and South Asia, explained India’s strategic relationships in Southeast Asia. WPR: Who are India’s main security partners in Southeast Asia and how expansive are these ties? Abhijit Singh: India’s principal security partners in Southeast Asia are Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Security cooperation with these countries is mostly limited to defense dialogues, low-level military exchanges, modest military aid and training, and [...]
