Conflict Archives - Page 2 of 22 - Robert Lansing Institute

GPS Jamming on Ursula von der Leyen’s Flight: Assassination Attempt—or A2/AD Signaling?

What happened (the verified core) The European Commission confirmed that the GPS on President Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft was jammedas it approached Plovdiv, Bulgaria, forcing crews to rely on “paper maps”…

September 2, 2025EU, GRU, Russia

Conflict Geopolitics Governance

Dodik’s Bid for Putin’s Backing to Break Bosnia: Law, Feasibility, Security Risks, and Russia’s Interests

Milorad Dodik is openly signaling that he will ask Vladimir Putin to support a referendum and, ultimately, independence for Republika Srpska (RS). While the legal path to secession is essentially closed under Bosnia and…

September 1, 2025Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Serbia

Conflict Geopolitics National Security

“Always Ready for War”: What Aliyev Meant—and What Comes Next

1) The trigger: Aliyev’s August message On Aug. 21, 2025, President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan “must always be ready for war,” touting expanded special forces, new commando units, upgraded aircraft and fresh fighter-jet…

August 29, 2025Azerbaijan, Russia

Conflict Geopolitics Peacekeeping

Moscow’s False Peace: How the Kremlin Exploits Trump’s Sympathy for Putin”

Russia’s leadership is exploiting President Trump’s evident sympathy for Vladimir Putin to erode the image of the United States as the world’s foremost defender of democracy. On August 24, 2025,…

August 25, 2025Russia, Ukraine, USA

Conflict Geopolitics Peacekeeping

Russia’s Pressure on Armenia After the Armenia–Azerbaijan Peace Breakthrough and Naryshkin’s Yerevan Overtures

Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a U.S.-brokered peace deal on August 8, 2025, with Washington and Brussels framing it as a milestone that still requires formal signing and ratification. Moscow reads this as a…

August 21, 2025Armenia, Azerbaijan, Naryshkin, Russia, SVR, USA

Conflict National Security

Russia Circumvents Sanctions Through Chinese Marketplaces

Despite sweeping international sanctions, Russia continues to secure critical equipment for its defense industry by exploiting alternative supply channels. A growing share of this trade flows through Chinese e-commerce platforms,…

August 20, 2025China, Russia, Sanctions

Conflict Governance

Borders, Bombs, and Belief: Southern Syria on the Brink

Since July 13, the Sweida province in Syria — an area with about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly of Druze faith — has been engulfed in fierce conflicts between local Druze militias, Bedouin…

July 24, 2025druze, Israel, Syria

Conflict Geopolitics

Trump’s 50-Day Peace Proposal to Moscow: Motivations, Feasibility, and Strategic Calculations

Donald Trump’s alleged backchannel proposal to the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days reflects a high-stakes political maneuver aimed at reframing the U.S. position on the…

July 15, 2025Russia, Ukraine, USA

Conflict Intelligence ops

Shifting Sands: Azeri-Russian Tensions Surface Amid Diaspora Strains and Media Arrests

The Russian police raids in Yekaterinburg targeting the Azerbaijani diaspora appear to have been triggered by a complex mix of internal intelligence turf wars, geopolitical messaging to Baku, and concerns over organized crime…

July 1, 2025Azerbaijan, Russia

Conflict Geopolitics

Russia and Iran After the Escalation with Israel: Strategic Partners, Conditional Allies

Executive Summary Despite years of strategic alignment, Russia did not provide direct military or political support to Iran during its recent confrontation with Israel. This reflects a calculated restraint rooted in Russia’s own geopolitical…

June 19, 2025Iran, Israel, Russia, USA

Conflict