The publication of this collection of essays coincides with the second anniversary of the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia on August 8-12, 2009.

The first essay looks into the transformation of the Georgian armed forces under President Mikhail Saakashvili and details Tbilisi’s key preparations for the war.

• August 16, 2010

Russia announced Wednesday that it had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system in the breakaway Georgian enclave of Abkhazia, a sign that Russian forces were becoming further entrenched in a disputed region at the focal point of Russia’s brief war with Georgia two years ago.

• August 12, 2010

The United States is struggling to implement a strategy for Afghanistan that will improve the lives of the Afghan people and allow US troops to go home.

• August 12, 2010

On paper, the plan for the foot patrol looked perfectly safe. A stroll through a couple of villages. Introductions to a few village elders. A two-mile drive back to the guarded walls of the Afghan police headquarters.

• August 11, 2010

Israel's defense minister has told a investigation into a deadly raid on an aid convoy to Gaza that the flotilla was a "planned provocation." The comments follow a stern defense of the raid by Israel's prime minister.

• August 11, 2010

On the second anniversary of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, the government in Tbilisi has accepted Russian occupation of their provinces — for now.

• August 10, 2010

The Obama Administration plans to sell 84 F-15 Eagle jet fighters to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the next ten years for a total of $30 billion.

• August 10, 2010

The white fortress loomed above the fields, a crumbling but still imposing redoubt perched on a rock mound above a plane of golden rapeseed shimmering in the morning light.

• August 10, 2010