ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Russian Air Force has helped the Syrian Democratic Forces liberate 20 residential areas from Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) around the city of Raqqa, the extremist groups’ stronghold, a Russian military spokesman said. Assisted by Russian air support, the Syrian Democratic Forces have made significant progress in IS-controlled areas in Syria, according to the head of the Russian General Staff’s operations department, Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy. “The troops of the Syrian Democratic Forces, commanded by Ayman Flyat el-Ganim, with the support of the Russian Air Force, conducted an offensive toward the ISIS capital, Raqqa. As a result of this offensive, approximately 20 residential areas were liberated from extremists. Strategic control was established over the important dam on the river Euphrates at al-Ahmar,” Rudskoy said at a press conference in Moscow. An opposition rebel group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, was established in October of 2015 that unite

By Pepe Escobar  In his seminal 'Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization,' Bryan Ward-Perkins writes, "Romans before the fall were as certain as we are today that their world would continue forever... They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.” The Empire of Chaos, today, is not about complacency. It’s about hubris – and fear. Ever since the start of the Cold War the crucial question has been who would control the great trading networks of Eurasia - or the “heartland”, according to Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861–1947), the father of geopolitics. We could say that for the Empire of Chaos, the game really started with the CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953, when the US finally encountered, face to face, that famed Eurasia crisscrossed for centuries by the Silk Road(s), and set out to conquer them all. Only six decades later, it’s clear there won’t be an American Silk Road in the 21st century, but rather, just like its ancient predecessor, a Chinese o