By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

Peacekeeping operations are one of the key domains of international relations. They play a paramount role in securing stability and fostering international cooperation. Currently, fourteen peacekeeping operations around the globe are led by the UN Department of Peace operations. Several other international organizations are involved in peacekeeping missions, but the UN is the ultimate authority in this sphere. READ MORE

• July 14, 2020

The United States believes Russia has given support to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan in the past but does not have intelligence to confirm it directed attacks against Americans or to corroborate that it paid bounties to kill American troops, the top U.S. general said on Thursday.

• July 13, 2020

Austria is investigating whether the weekend killing of a Chechen dissident was politically motivated, the prosecutors’ office handling the case said on Monday, after two suspects were arrested.

• July 6, 2020

One of President Vladimir Putin’s relatives has been elected leader of a small Russian political party which he hopes will win seats in the national parliament at an election next year, the party’s website showed on Monday.

• July 6, 2020

Britain’s transition from petroleum to electricity in road transport is accelerating, albeit from a low base, and will start to have a significant impact on oil consumption towards the end of the decade.

• July 3, 2020

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as investors worried that rising COVID-19 cases would hurt demand while supply could rise with a potential resurgence of Libyan oil production, which has slowed to a trickle since the start of the year.

• July 3, 2020

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of a reported Russian effort to pay the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, saying his actions were a “dereliction of duty.”

• July 3, 2020

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the newly independent successor states faced numerous challenges: economic collapse, ethnic conflicts, and a rapid introduction of market reforms which ushered in large scale poverty as well as a quick enrichment of very small portion of the population. At the same time, there was a constant flow of Western experts and consultants who were embedded in almost all state institutions. In the first decade of independence there was a vague but widespread perception that the ultimate destination of former Soviet republics would be membership of the Euro-Atlantic institutions - EU and NATO. READ MORE

• July 3, 2020