ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  The Saker ; Originally appeared at  The Unz Review The year 2018 will go down in history as a turning point in the evolution of the geostrategic environment of our planet.  There are many reasons for that and I won’t list them all, but here are some of the ones which I personally consider the most important ones: The Empire blinked.  Several times. This is probably the single most important development of the year: the AngloZionist Empire issued all sorts of scary threats, and took some even scarier actual steps, but eventually it had to back down.  In fact, the Empire is in retreat on many fronts, but I will only list a few crucial ones: The DPRK: remember all the grandiose threats made by Trump and his Neocon handlers?  The Administration went as far as announcing that it would send as many as  THREE(!) nuclear aircraft carrier strike groups to the waters off the DRPK  while Trump threatened to  “totally destroy” Nor...

Click to see the full-size image A spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces released a summary of operations of the Yemeni Army and Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in 2018. According to the report, Yemeni forces carried out 689 operations against the Saudi-led coalition across the country and fired 131 missiles at targets belonging to Saudi-led forces. It should be noted that Yemeni forces carried out 6 naval operations against ships of the coalition. Furthermore, Ansar Allah and its allies reportedly shot down 42 UAVs and destroyed 590 vehicles belonging to the coalition-led forces. Click to see the full-size image

IMAGE: Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS The news agency TASS reports ( source ): Russia’s T-14 tank based on the Armata platform will undergo state trials in the Defense Ministry’s scientific and research institutions next year, the ministry’s press service said on Monday. “The T-14 tank, which has been created on the universal Armata platform and developed for the Ground Forces, is completing the manufacturer’s trials. The fighting vehicle in 2019 will start undergoing state trials in the Russian Defense Ministry’s scientific and research institutions,” the ministry said. The T-14 is the world’s only post-war third-generation tank. Armata is Russia’s development, which has no counterparts in the world. Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko said the Defense Ministry had signed a contract with Uralvagonzavod for the delivery of 132 T-14 tanks and T-15 infantry fighting vehicles based on the Armata combat platform. The supplies are due to be completed by 2021. The ...

The Eitam and Shavit of 122 Squadron during Israel’s 68th Independence Day flypast. By: Oren Rozen. This file is licensed under the  Creative Commons   Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International  license Russian warplanes took off from Hmeimim airbase in western Syria and intercepted an Israeli spy plane, which was escorted by several fighter jets, off the coast of Lebanon in the morning of December 30, according to Syrian pro-government activists. Observers confirmed that a Gulfstream G550 Nahshon-Shavit signal intelligence (SIGINT) plane of the Israeli Air force (IAF) was carrying out a reconnaissance mission over the international waters off the shores of Syria and Lebanon at the morning. Furthermore, a local source in the Syrian city of Tartus told SouthFront that Russian warplanes were seen heading towards Lebanese coast. CivMilAir  @CivMilAir 41,000ft watching over the eastern Med Israeli Air Force G550 Shavit AEW 679 http://www...

Click to see the full-size image The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured the village of Abu Hassan and about 60% of the village of Kashmah in the Euphrates Valley from ISIS. On December 28, the SDF released a statement claiming that 71 ISIS terrorists were eliminated as a result of the clashes in the area. Click to see the full-size image

US forces are reportedly evacuating their military base near al-Hasakah; The Syrian Army eliminated 3 ISIS members in the area of al-Safa; The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) still develop their operation against ISIS in the Hajin pocket. Click to see the full-size image

Written by  Nikolas K. Gvosdev ; Originally appeared at  The National Interest ne of the major blind spots in how the U.S. national security apparatus responds to and formulates policy for issues that arise across the Eurasian heartland is how the American government has chosen to bureaucratically define the region. Namely: the continued inclusion of Russia within the diplomatic confines of a larger European bureau has intellectually limited assessments about Russia’s position in the world by framing Russian action primarily through a European lens. Not only does this undercount Russia’s ability to be a major player in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, it has also, in my view, tended to overweight the importance of the Baltic littoral to Russian policy. Poll U.S. experts and at the top of any risk prediction for 2019 will be the threat of a Russian incursion into the Baltic states—and the importance of continued efforts to reinforce NATO’s north-eastern frontie...