Silent Lonesome Man

When the advisor to the Ukrainian government, Mikhaylo Podolyak, made his statement worrying about Russia's intention to scale back from original invasion, he had also mentioned that the Russian MP from Moscow requested Russia to "denazify" other countries like Poland, Moldova and the Baltics on his tweet. While how far real it is is much for debate, Podolyak's tweet actually struck to our mind: Putin is planning for a greater war, and for more destruction, probably all of Europe. But while the rest of Europe is worrying about being embroiled to war, another sign that China is planning for a future war has been ongoing. Like Russia, China is led by a powerful dictator, Xi Jinping, who has accumulated power similar to that of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and maybe even more powerful than those two because he inherited a country, whose economy is standing 2nd in the world and deeply integrated globally, with a military far more powerful than that of Russia. Ever since...

In 1997, a book was published with the support within the Russian Ministry of Defence. This book was written by Alexander Dugin, a neo-fascist and ultranationalist Russian, whose worldview has been skewed and one-sided at best. But his book has become one of the best sellers within Russia and it has become the powerful tool of Russian military and political education that would go on to dominate the Russian government for next decades. That book? Foundations of Geopolitics. The book, written by Dugin, underlined one thing: alliances and annexation. In Dugin's argument, Russia's future has to be dictated in the hand of strongman, and to rout out every kind of American and British influence. He also called for Europe to be settled under Russian term, meaning Finlandisation, while encouraged, at least, the regimes of Turkey, Iran and China to be freed of doing actions as long as they don't antagonise Russia. To make the explanation short: Dugin encouraged Russia to take firmer...

“Who wishes to fight must first count the cost.” - Sun Tzu. “No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.” - Dwight Eisenhower. When China has been doing in South China Sea is now seen as " the largest military buildup since the World War II ", it can be understood that the Chinese state is planning for a total war. China's growing efforts to militarise its disputed territories came with no surprise. The Chinese are watching the war in Ukraine, where its ally, Vladimir Putin's Russia, has waged against since 23 February. Initially, Beijing expected Russia would make a swift blitzkrieg to conquer Ukraine, taking Kyiv with little bloodshed. One another thing for China to watch the Russian invasion was, if it could help the United States feel distracted and would halt its pivot to Asia, China could enhance its power in Asia. A Russian victory would've been even more to celebrate for China, if it could have really happened. However...

On 23 February 2022, Putin made a public speech , revealing himself an extremely hateful, resentful figure who did not acknowledge the independence of Ukraine, before finally launching an invasion on Ukraine. Dubbed by Putin as "special military operation", the world has been stunned by large-scale inhuman violence caused by Putin and his military gang, many nations were immediate to impose economic sanctions and boycotts toward everything made in Putin's Russia . In response, Putin has become even more aggressive, deploying nuclear missiles warning about a war against the West, referring the West " empire of lies " rather than addressing his imperialist manifesto crashing. Ultranationalist psyche of Putin's Russia has some supports, but mostly from autocratic leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, North Korea and Myanmar - which do not include the people of these nations. Yet, one country stands out - not just only from the leadership but even within...

The Houthis are notorious as it was born from the ashes of Hussein Badreddin Al-Houthi, a Zaydi Shi'a and also former parliamentarian of the Yemeni Cabinet. The former parliamentarian, who himself got educated in Iran and even met personally with Ali Khamenei (the current Iranian Supreme Leader), entered the Cabinet during 1990s with hope to raise concern about government's corruption, but instead got nothing except rebuffs from the officials. Unsurprisingly, Hussein Badreddin attempted to create a political party that would go on to be known after his death, Ansarallah, or the Houthis after the former's surname. He was killed in September 2004 when he clashed with government's troops, but his party persisted and even grew into a very powerful, notorious group. Of course, the group was not always at easy shape - the President of Yemen at the time of Hussein's death, ironically the Shi'a Ali Abdullah Saleh - tried to suppress the movement. However, the Houthis we...

When Israeli military and Palestinian militants clashed over the decision by the Israeli court to evict six Arab families from Jerusalem, little expected it would escalate into a full-blown conflict, with Israeli military now tries to flatten entire Gaza strip in accusation of the Hamas militants firing rockets to the country. Usually, Israel's actions would always receive condemnations from the majority of Muslim world. This time, no exception. But one country, once being Israel's strongest ally in the Islamic world, has now instead only expressed reservation. This was Azerbaijan, the Caucasus Shiite Muslim nation bordering Russia and Iran. The country's strange silence is abnormal because, in the past, Azerbaijan played an even more active role: it mediated between Israel and the Muslim nations; being one of only a few Muslim-majority states to not condemn Israel. So what happened? Israel and Azerbaijan have a unique relationship that made Azerbaijan the best Muslim ally ...