While the Syrian chemical weapons program has been targeted and degraded since 2013, almost nothing has been done about Syria’s biological weapons program. The recent regime change in Syria could provide an opportunity to finally locate and destroy Syria’s biological weapons program.
Turkey’s involvement in Syria is having an effect on its regional standing, and is shaping an image of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a Muslim savior. Turkey is exploiting the instability in Syria to achieve its own strategic objectives, which primarily include a curbing of the Kurdish threat, an expansion of Ankara’s regional influence, and a positioning of Turkey as a protective Muslim power.
The North Korean Air Force has installed AWACS/AEW platforms on several Russian transport aircraft. If the installation is based on the Chinese KJ2000, there is a good chance that Israeli know-how has reached the North Koreans indirectly.
WINDING DOWN, BUT NOT YET DONE
The Iron Swords/Al-Aqsa Flood War (each side uses a different name) that began on 7 October 2023 is not over, but – barring a dramatic U-turn – it is winding down.
At its height, the war was conducted on seven fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. The intensity and method of fighting was different on each front and varied over time.
Though the
Hamas seeks to end the war while maintaining its military control over Gaza, mirroring Hezbollah’s pre-war dominance in Lebanon. Israel must not allow this to happen, even if Egypt pushes for it.
The PSCRP reports in February 2025, have covered the recent political developments in Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Russia. The PSCR program at the BESA Center is further continuing its mission of analyzing the most important sociopolitical developments in the post-Soviet region.
The IDF’s current mechanism for determining and providing intelligence assessments rigidifies the thinking of intelligence analysts, and increases the risk that they will not recognize changes in the behavioral patterns of the adversary that affect the predictive ability and relevance of the forecast. Providing assessments should be the beginning of the process, not the end. A structured, open, and ongoing discussion of an assessment can make both the process and the product more dynamic in the face of changing conditions.
Azerbaijan, a Shia Muslim-majority country, has the longest-standing and most comprehensive partnership with Israel. Azerbaijan is the only strategic partner in the Muslim world of the US’s main ally in the Middle East. It shares borders with both Iran and Russia, and may thus be considered one of the pillars of Israel’s regional strategic security architecture. Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the global order, Azerbaijan’s significance—for both American and Israeli strategic interests—has grown even further.
The German Navy is facing new challenges in the Middle East ranging from arms smuggling to air defense. These challenges are developing in the context of increasing escalation in Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea and in Northern Europe.
President Donald Trump’s controversial initiative to relocate the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, primarily to Egypt and Jordan, is causing a stir in the Arab world. While the strong public resistance to the idea expressed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah seems to negate the possibility that the president’s initiative can be implemented, President Trump insists that his plan is achievable and that Egypt and Jordan will eventually cooperate. His resettlement idea, viewed in today’s
Israel’s original defense strategy strove to maximize wartime operational decisiveness as compensation for inferior resilience. In recent decades, anti-terror tactics have taken over our strategic thinking, pushing this principle aside. The current war is a crossroads. The October 7 attack can be seen as a localized failure, and the strategy of focusing on Hezbollah and Hamas can be continued. This would mean establishing buffer zones, which would lead to protracted guerrilla warfare and further weaken Israel. But there is another
