The Southern Caucasus is one of the most dangerous hotspots on the Eurasian continent. For centuries, the region has attracted regional and global players. Its small nations exist constantly under the pressure of three crucial Eurasian powers: Russia, Turkey and Iran...

In the 21st century, the balance of power in Eurasia is structurally different than it was in the last two hundred years, when the mental maps of our elites were taking shape...

In March 1965, Mao reportedly told the member of a Palestinian delegation: “Imperialism is afraid of China and the Arabs. Israel and Formosa are bases of imperialism in Asia. You are the front gate of the great continent, and we are the rear. They created Israel for you, and Formosa for us"...

Taiwan and Crimea have many interesting similarities both in terms of their geopolitical and geostrategic importance and in terms of historic and cultural narratives for China and Russia. It seems that the leaders of both countries are committed to the idea of “collecting lost lands”...

In the near future nobody is going to establish international rules for the different types of UAVs. The proliferation of drone technologies and their decreasing prices on the global market are going to continue...

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #10

Since the development of drone warfare, defence against the attacks and surveillance of different types of UAVs have been included as a component of A2/AD strategies...

War Vs Peace Missile Report #64. May 2021

It seems Israel will never leave Gaza. It is always here, even if its soldiers are not visible, patrolling the streets as they did not so long ago. The occupation is now truly twenty-first century—the best drone technology in the world...

Israel has responded to the activities of the militants in Lebanon and Palestine by developing a genuinely sophisticated system of UCAVs which encompass strategic, medium-size and tactical drones...

It has become popular to refer to Turkey as the main drone “superpower” in the region, but it would be a grave mistake to think that in the Middle East only Israel and Turkey have developed sophisticated UAV industries...

Rapidly developing both in theory and in practice, drone warfare will in the near future likely define and shape the nature of war...

“Poland from sea to sea” (Polska od morza do morza). This slogan is most often associated with the 16th century and the period of the greatest power of the Polish Republic...

Poland has joined the list of countries that are going to operate the Turkish Bayraktar UAVs. In the near future, Turkish drones are going to fly in the skies of Poland and the Baltic countries along with the other countries...

The experiences of previous Russian-Ukrainian confrontations shows that the easiest task for Moscow was to take control over Kharkov and Sloboda Ukraine...

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London. Published in 1908, it sets out to warn that a dangerous new society is rising on the horizon...

Theatre of War “C” – the Northern Tavrida ‘Peninsula’ - from a geopolitical perspective, this theatre is given by the geopolitical divine to be occupied if the Crimean Peninsula is already under control...

10 years after the Beijing Olympics had showcased the awakening of Napoleon’s “sleeping giant”, 2018 was the year that America signalled - finally (?) - that it would now be taking a much tougher approach...

Scenario Five - this scenario is closer to the second scenario or even to the first one, but in this scenario, Russia imposes its entire technological superiority and destroys the main concentrations of Ukrainian military equipment, material and navy...

W wymiarze wojskowym wycofanie się Amerykanów na zachodnią półkulę w ramach offshore balancing oznaczałoby redukcję w amerykańskim arsenale nuklearnym z jednoczesnym rozwojem tarczy antyrakietowej...

Scenario Two - here the strategic goals are much greater and the effects in case of its realisation would not be simply political or diplomatic...

Any effective strategy (for a country in Poland’s position) requires an understanding of one’s own limitations, both related to the foundations of one’s own power and to the existing obligations of a superpower...

2021 will be the anniversary of Ukrainian independence and 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union.,,

“We’re a maritime nation – we’ve grown by the sea and live by it; if we lose command of it we starve” – this is what the English used to say. The Americans still say it today. So it is no coincidence that the US Navy is the pride of the American armed forces - nor is it a coincidence that aircraft carriers are the pride of the US Navy, a symbol of its power and the United States.

Geopolitics has different expressions, usually global or regional, but sometimes it can be interesting to understand the phenomenon of geopolitics through the local angle. Victor Savchenko’s book which I present today is truly one of those books that give us a picture of how geopolitics works at the local level...

In the last seven years of the Obama Presidency (2010-2016), the Dow Jones had risen from 11,500 to 19,500, an average of just over 1,000 points every year...

TIn autumn, the situation in the region deteriorated. On September 27th, the month and a half long Nagorno-Karabakh War began. The geopolitical consequences of the war were detrimental for Armenia, and have not been settled so far. The country fell totally under the control of Moscow, hence increasing Russian military presence in the Southern Caucasus.

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #8

War Vs Peace Missile Report #62 March 2021

The second half of 2020 will be considered by many historians and experts as an important historical period that determined the development of the political and geopolitical situation in two crucial regions of Europe, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus...

In 2013 Russia’s Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov jointly announced the creation of a Special Operations Forces...

Some years are more memorable than others: the terror attacks of 2001, the Iraq invasion of 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the birth of the smartphone era in 2007, the financial crisis of 2008, the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas in 2014. And although we might not have thought so at first, 2016 would turn out to be another “one of those years”!

War Vs Peace Missile Report #61

2015 was the year of the European Migrant Crisis, when makeshift refugee camps in Greek Islands off the coast of Turkey began filling up with families (and young men) fleeing the ongoing Syrian Civil War...

In February, at a panel organized by the National University of Singapore, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressed his conviction that the next decade of Sino-American relations will be marked by "living on the edge." Rudd's idée fixe is that China and the United States develop "barriers", allowing both powers to continue their inevitable rivalry while reducing the risk of a kinetic conflict between them...

I have had the intention of writing these few sentences for some time, watching the debate around the rapidly changing international scene and the accompanying public debate in Poland and abroad. But let me start with a series of questions?

The Euromaidan protests in Kyiv started on 21st November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovich announced Ukraine’s suspension of an association agreement with the EU, meaning the East European country would instead seek closer ties with Moscow. This was a post-colour revolution...

In the US plans for a war with China, Australia plays the role of a base for peripheral operations in the Indian Ocean and in the Indonesian straits...

Barack Obama’s (second) inauguration speech on 21st January 2013 contained this rather hopeful line: “A decade of war is now ending”...

The history of the future (futurology), the philosophy of history, geopolitics and astropolitics are the most interesting fields of human knowledge...

We have to be careful about the terms we use to describe events. As Tim Marshall argued in the Spectator in October 2012, “calling these events the ‘Arab Spring’ automatically frames them as positive”...

The first anti-utopia was written in 1920 in the Soviet Russia by Evgeni Zamyatin. In Russia, the novel was published only in 1988, and the reaction in Soviet Russia in the 20s was outrage, forcing Zamyatin to leave the country...

Egypt in the Russian agenda plays the most important role for the Middle East and Africa, and the cooperation seems to be increasing in 2021...

On 4th January 2010, the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai. At 828 metres, it was the world’s tallest building...

Jacek Bartosiak, Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Gustaw Gressler talk about the Germany's foreign policy.

The phrase “up in the air” perfectly captures the world at the beginning of 2009 (and, arguably, ever since)...

Konstantin Eduardovich was not only a genius astrophysicist and rocket scientist, but also created a cosmic philosophy which he presented in his many different articles, essays and novels...

“The numbers tell us this was a debate between change and experience, and change won”...

London introduced a comprehensive post-Brexit strategy towards Ukraine and now it has several components...

However, what were truly revolutionary and historic were the documents signed recently between London and Kiev. The Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement signed on 8th October 2020 in London during the official visit of the Ukrainian President to the UK...

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” Normally we might be inclined to ignore Steve Jobs’ sales patter but here, on 9th January 2007 unveiling the first-generation Apple iPhone, he was - as they say - on point...

The United Kingdom is approaching the final stage of Brexit. London is thinking about the post-Brexit period of its history and is searching for a new post-Brexit grand strategy...

This is actually not a report yet, but rather an account of what we have already done and indeed where we are going...

The main geopolitical imperative of Ukraine is to find a way to maintain its social and political resilience together with the territorial integrity of the country...

In the 31st January 1907 edition of Le Matin, under the headline Paris-Pékin Automobile: Un défi prodigieux, there was a really remarkable story which looked set to define what we now think of as the first era of globalisation...

This book was written in 2008 by one of the staunch supporters of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Mikhail Leontiev was born in Moscow in 1958 and for many years was involved in Russian politics, more specifically in Russian media space...

Opened in December 2005, the Donghai Bridge — connecting mainland Shanghai with a new deepwater container port on the islands of Yangshan in Hangzhou Bay 32.5km away — was not the world’s longest cross-water bridge...

Taipei 101 — named after its 101 floors — opened on 31st December 2004, having earlier in the year been recognised as the world’s tallest skyscraper at 509.2 m (spire), 449.2 m (roof height). Under President Chen Shui-bian of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was re-elected in March 2004 after a four-year term, the Republic of China (Taiwan) had begun to distance itself from the PRC...

In Baghdad, the capital city, you will see street merchants selling exactly the same kind of pottery that their ancestors sold at the time of the Arabian Nights..

The United States is planning to return to the Moon, but this time it looks more serious and aggressive than ever...

2001 had been amongst the most difficult years in America’s history and the world now waited to see how it would respond...

In the recent decade, the advanced UAVs technologies proliferated far beyond the traditional powers -  Israel, the U.S. and West, at large - that dominated this technological field...

On 21st June 2001, a train set off from Yandi in the arid upland interior of Western Australia to the Port of Port Hedland 275 km away on the Indian Ocean...

Between 1989 and 1991, the strategic map of Eurasia altered dramatically as broad swathes of territory reopened to international markets after a long period of enclosure behind communist walls...

The 21st century didn’t begin officially until 1st Jan 2001 but in the popular imagination, 2000 represented a new beginning: a new century, a new millennium. The collapse of the Soviet Union was now an increasingly distant point in the rear-view mirror...

The book which I would like to present has historical importance for those who are interested in the revolutionary events in Iran between the three historical periods of this ancient country...

During the Cold War, Washington needed these two countries in order to contain the Soviets’ drive in the south, but since the end of the Cold War and the elimination of the “Russian threat”, all that’s left is the direct territorial, religious and military contradictions between Greece and Turkey...

It is not a sci-fi movie anymore: the war of the drone is reality and it is happening now...

The Military Balance 2020 provides the following information regarding the military forces of Turkey and Greece. In 2019, Turkey possessed the biggest army in Europe with 355,200 active military personnel and 378,700 reserves...

The Cilicia war theater existed during the Franco-Turkish War (1918-1921). In Turkish military historiography, it is known as the “southern front.”

The Megisti (Kastellorizo) theater of operation is the most interesting and the most attractive island to Turkey...

Turkey is changing its geopolitical posture in the region and her strategy is omnidirectional. For the last five years, Turkey has been very busy with the military conflicts in Syria and Iraq, but the situation is slowly evolving into one that is stable and manageable for Turkey...

Strategy&Future is launching a foresight analysis titled "Project 2030" concerning prospective security crises that would bear on Poland's security...

„ [..] And the Pole must stay on this land, so that Polish tears and Polish blood will not be wasted, because this land is poured with Polish blood to defend it…”

The September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center changed the course of history. It began a global war on terrorism, which shook new life into Special Forces and redefined their character...

This book sheds light on the Soviet Union’s strategic convulsions in Afghanistan when the country almost collapsed but still by inertia was trying to behave as a Superpower with geopolitical commitments.

The dramatic relations between Greece and Turkey are rooted in history, religion, ideology and ultimately geopolitics. The Russian-Turkish Wars in the XVIII and XIX centuries tremendously weakened the Ottoman Empire...

On August 9, Belarus held it’s 6th presidential election. Shockingly – shockingly! – according to official estimates and exit polls, this was yet another resounding victory by the country's long-standing strongman leader, Alexander Lukashenka.

In the far southwestern corner of England, overlooking the blue Atlantic and the green rolling hills of Penwith, there is a village of tiny grey stone cottages...

We’ve seen changes in U.S. foreign policy - the geopolitical pivot to the Pacific - and the U.S. needs someone who is able to keep an eye on the Greater Middle East through an American lens...

“If you destroy the country’s first President, this will be the beginning of the end - you will always be on your knees.” Alexander Lukashenko still seeks to frame himself as a guarantor of national independence and sovereignty...

The Baltic-Eastern Mediterranean zone which divides the European peninsula from the rest of Eurasia is becoming dangerously unstable. Last week there were reports that the row between Ankara and Athens had evolved into a more aggressive stage...

Rousseau’s philosophy is mainly interpreted in two ways: firstly (and most commonly) through the concept of Romanticism, merging his ideas with his extraordinary personality...

Turkish plans for the creation of energy independence are based upon three main pillars with the use of critical sources of power...

On August 10, the election commission updated the preliminary data on the results of voting in the presidential elections in Belarus...

The main feature of the Anglo-Saxon world is global dominance and its customary law and institutions that they dominate over the World Ocean...

The political situation in Belarus is increasingly volatile, and the election process is developing in an increasingly unpredictable fashion...

None of the geopolitical actors in Eurasia and beyond were ready for Turkey to come up with such ambitions and with such an omnidirectional grand strategy encompassing the whole of West Eurasia...

In the wild and wary aftermath of the Brexit revolution, many simply assumed that the UK would lose influence in the rest of the world...

The Persian Gulf War marked a turning point in human history in the XX century because, in some respect, it ended the Cold War. Moreover, it introduced space power as an element of contemporary warfare...

The canon of the strategic theory is full of interesting and unique concepts that were introduced many years earlier than they were implemented in the operational models of modern warfare. However, since it first emerged as an independent field of scientific discussion, its most difficult challenge might be to develop strategic theoretical patterns and concepts for the future wars in Outer Space.

The main features of this week are that people started to respond to violence by violence; an oppositional coalition was created; and that Lukashenka allegedly was hospitalized, but it wasn’t true...

Regardless of whether the ongoing changes in the world’s climate are man-induced, the reality of their occurrence is a fact...

The situation in Belarus is not as desperate as it appeared last week because both sides are now at the stage of preparations for the final struggle...

Hannah Arendt is quite a popular theoretician in universities of the West, well known for her development of the theory of Totalitarianism. Her intellectual interests were based upon the main problems of the XX century...

The political situation in Belarus is changing dramatically and dynamic events are underway, therefore it is worth undertaking a more detailed analysis of the situation in the country...

Back in 2018, the idea of Fort Trump was floated by the Polish President Andrzej Duda, with the implicit hope of making the presence of US assets permanent...

In the case of Libya, Turkey is achieving its geopolitical goals astonishingly successfully, in the same way as in Syria. The presence of drones does not resemble the presence of military forces...

Turkey and Russia are the two countries that are now learning how to operationally use a new type of the XXI century warfare, Drone (UAV) Warfare...

When Alfred T. Mahan was prophesying the rise of China back in 1897, he talked about modern European civilisation having grown up “under the shadow of the Cross”...

The goal of Americans in the coming years will be to maintain the ability to project power in all areas in which China and Russia - in the face of the current world system - are trying to push back against the interests of the US...

The globe is facing an unprecedented challenge which has its own name “COVID-19” and which definitely emanates a direct threat to humanity as a biological factor...

The globe is facing an unprecedented challenge which has its own name “COVID-19” and which definitely emanates a direct threat to humanity as a biological factor...

The US is planning to “fundamentally, not only reevaluate, but take actions that will start to undermine the long term relationship” with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)...

The River Polist has its source at Lake Polisto in the western part of the Valdai Hills (about 400 km east of Riga). It becomes navigable at Staraya Russa...

Perhaps it’s to do with owning and operating the biggest airplane in the world; perhaps it’s to do with the self-deprecating actor-turned-President...

Eastern Europe is gradually and very carefully returning to normal life. COVID-19 is still the most important issue in all countries of the region. Many are planning to coordinate the process of reopening borders. However, many other interesting events have occurred...

To really comprehend the vastness of the Eurasian steppe and the ways of the societies that have long inhabited it, we need to think in terms of the cultural importance of horsemanship...

I believe that what [the Russians] want to do is maintain situations of strategic geographic instability on their flanks, to their benefit …

Arthur L. Herman (1956) is an American historian and senior fellow at the Hundson Institute.  This book is his latest piece published in 2017.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. - Psalm 23, Line 4

The peoples and nations of Central and Eastern Europe are learning to live in the new conditions with Covid-19 pandemia spreading. Getting used to a new way of life is happening now. The way everything is going to end up is still uncertain.

Typically I find that those who like to view the world through a prism of the unevenness of geography have very little time for chess, with its flat board and what game theorists and economists might call its “perfect information”...

Everywhere is the same now - people are isolated without any idea what lies in store for them next. The future will depend on how deep the medical crisis (evolving gradually into a social and an economic crisis) turns out to be...

The “invisible enemy” is forcing us to engage differently with the world: as producers, as consumers, as believers and non-believers, as friends, as family...

The current epidemiological situation shows the tangible reality of the impact the flow of people and goods makes on our lives...

There is now a need to find, if possible, some model which can explain to the billions of people around the world where we are, where we’re headed and what kind social and political order might emerge from the ashes of the current crisis...

The Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a recent press conference - one of the first after the forming of the new government - said that Ukraine is entering a global economic crisis.

For most of the 45 years of the Cold War, as a rule, there was a bipolar system and bipolar nuclear rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union...

Experts of Russian Regnum Agency has been recently debating the issue of Polish-Russian competition for influence in Central & Eastern Europe, in particular in the "buffer zone" countries separating Poland and Russia, namely Belarus and Ukraine.

Relations between Turkey and Russia have typically been the most dramatic between any two nations in European history. They have an omnidimensional nature and at the same time they are almost never peaceful.

In terms of military strategy and theory of warfare on the European continent, the post-Cold War period has had one specific feature. Namely, it has typically been a fight between unequal forces...

In Crimea, people together with Orthodox priests are praying for rains and snow because throughout the last six months there was no rain during autumn, winter has been dry, and the reservoirs are almost empty. Journalists are forecasting apocalyptic scenarios for Crimea, including drought. In Simferopol, the authorities are gradually introducing a regime of limited water supply.

There is a great deal of popular anxiety throughout the countries of the Intermarium concerning the threat of the Coronavirus, which seems to be gradually encircling and surrounding the region...

The concept of a "New Concert of Great Powers" is increasingly cited as an analogy to the nineteenth-century balance of powers, which was established to “ensure security and peace” in Europe after the conflagration of the Napoleonic wars. Now, none of the nations of Europe is strong enough to be able to play first violin in the potential new concert of powers - should such emerge...

The head of the Duma Committee on Defense, Vladimir Shamanov, said that Russia would conduct operational measures in response to the next large-scale NATO exercises near the borders of the Russian Federation...

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left Russia with a strategic problem. For centuries, Russian national security had depended on a buffer that would serve to increase the difficulty of invading Russia. After the collapse, this buffer dissolved into its historicalnations – the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine.

In our opening statement, that we have published last summer, we articulated our desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European (aka Intermarium) perspective on world affairs

This is the first major attempt in Ukraine since the events of 2014 to address the phenomenon of the Intermarium. It undertakes a deep intellectual reflection about the place of Ukraine in this developing geopolitical project.

Last week brought a slew of diplomatic activity in the Eastern Europe. Mike Pompeo visited in Minsk and while there promised to cover all of Belarus’ oil demand. In Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Erdogan tightened Ankara’s relations with Ukraine and its new President Vladimir Zelensky against the Russian Federation as retaliation for Russian actions in Syria against rebels in Idlib...

On Monday February 2nd, a plane carrying French President Emmanuel Macron touched down in Warsaw, marking the first time he had visited Poland since he was elected nearly three years ago.

Pompeo travels to Kiev and Minsk; Germany and Turkey seek closer economic ties with Ukraine; Moldova slowly re-orientates itself towards the East. Minsk unexpectedly orders a comprehensive combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Belarus, and an answer to the Collective Security Treaty Organization under the leadership of Russia preparing own its exercises in Belarus.   

Ever since Belarus emerged as a sovereign state from the chaotic period of the early 1990s, it has seldom caught the eye of western – and, lamentably, eastern – analysts...

A2/AD stands for Anti-Access/Area Denial and has become an increasingly popular term in military circles over recent years. It’s a concept that refers to the military and technological measures...

In our opening statement, that we have published last summer, we articulated our desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European (aka Intermarium) perspective on world affairs

The first global geopolitical events 2020 were rapid and alarming. The consequences for the entire year are still unknown. Last week, the world was occupied with the Middle East - the events were happening so fast and unpredictable, that nobody knew what would come next and many expected the worst scenarios...

In August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. In its wake, the US Navy demonstrated its overwhelming land-attack capabilities in the Black Sea. It was supported by other NATO countries by sending ships through the Bosporus, which in fact frightened Russian decision-makers...

In the opening statement at Strategy&Future we articulated last summer the desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European aka European Intermarium perspective on world affairs, permanently influenced by the fluid balance of power in Eurasia and elsewhere in an increasingly volatile and fragile security environment that badly needs to be understood, not only by political and military leaders but also by individuals and business leaders...

Interesting, and perhaps slightly surprising, because China - contrary to Russia - has decided in the last phase of the unification negotiations to support Belarus's position...

The West is witnessing a new challenger in the Middle East that does not comply itself with the traditional Western hegemony to the region that had been lasting for decades...

We often hear about the Russian hybrid war, or using a more professional term - the next generation warfare. What exactly does this mean? It's time to clearly explain to Strategy&Future readers.

True, geography, or more broadly speaking, geopolitics - understood as the deployment of resources across space, using pivotal areas, points of strength and transport corridors - is not the only factor that defines the way states (and more specifically the leaders of states) behave...

Any position Russia takes in the Northern European Plain is not to calm the Russians...

The term "power projection", often used in the language of military, geopolitics or geostrategy, is derived from the field of operational and strategic art, and...

In the very first article we have published I presented you with our mission statement. Back then I wrote the following words:

The brain behind the victorious Cold War operational Air-Land Battle Concept was General Donn A. Starry, who commanded the US Army Training and Doctrine Command between...

They say that travel broadens the mind. Today, in the era of cheap flights, open borders and ubiquitous Internet, this saying takes on a special meaning...

"Sooner or later all roads lead east"...

In recent years, the notion of the Revolution in Military Affairs has been a sensation as a new stage in the way war is conducted. Something extremely important is at hand, so I decided that it would be necessary to...

Alfred T. Mahan remembered mainly as a brilliant proponent and pioneer of modern naval strategy - also drew upon a deep understanding of world history to make some eerily accurate guesses at what the future might hold. This feels like a good time to look back on some of the predictions he made...

Ancient history seems to be an inexhaustible source of examples for all areas of human life. This is especially true of politics...

The Polish theatre of war can be broken down into separate operational areas.

Lithuania. A unique place in Polish cultural awareness...

Contrary to what voters or the average Smiths often think, political leaders are not free actors in their actions...

Africa is experiencing the demographic boom. The human talent is the greatest resource available to humankind. In 21. century the African continent will become...

Years ago, as a young boy playing with bottle caps in the yard, I really liked this uniquely original bottle among others, with a green flag and a hand holding a torch...

Winner of the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award 2018

The summer of 1914 changed the European world forever...

Why is it that some countries are rich and have importance in the world, whilst others are poor and irrelevant?

8th August 2019 - in the early hours of the morning, I stood in Braniewo at ul. Zielona 25...

- seen through the eyes of an intelligence officer of the Japanese fleet

This June I spent my holidays in England...

Józef Mackiewicz is not a well-known figure amongst the Polish people.

From the German Kriegsspiel to the Contemporary Era of Great Power Competition.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.