North Korea fired several ballistic missiles toward its western waters around 1:50 p.m. KST on Monday, according to the South Korean military. It marked the North’s fifth missile launch this year and came on the same day the United States and South Korea kicked off their “Freedom Shield” annual jointContinue Reading
In an important instance of counterterrorism cooperation, Pakistan and the United States last month conducted a military operation to arrest a commander of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. The development has drawn considerable attention from the U.S., with President Donald Trump thanking the PakistaniContinue Reading
Each month, ACLED’s Asia Pacific Team collects information on the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events in the region. Details below on significant developments in February 2025 in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand. Bangladesh: Hasina’s speech prompts demolitions ofContinue Reading
In late February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed the U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia. Although the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) pledged to continue defending U.S. critical infrastructure from Russian threats, reports surfaced by March 2 thatContinue Reading
In its 2025 budget, the Sri Lankan government has allocated its Ministry of Defense (MoD) 442 billion Sri Lankan rupees (around $1.5 billion), a 3 percent increase from $1.45 billion in 2024, and up 15 percent from $1.3 billion in 2023. Only the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic DevelopmentContinue Reading
I forget which comedian it was who joked, “A friend will help you move house; a good friend will help you move a body.” My mind, of late, has been preoccupied with broken friendships and impending doom. Perhaps it’s to be expected given the events since Donald Trump’s inauguration justContinue Reading
The U.S. administration of Donald Trump has openly admitted that one of the reasons for its attempts to re-engage and then rebuild good relations with Russia is to gain leverage over China (the so-called reverse Kissinger or reverse Nixon). Beijing’s calm or even indifferent reactions to Trump’s signals of reconciliationContinue Reading
“Civilizations die by suicide, not by murder.”—Arnold Toynbee This observation by historian Arnold Toynbee encapsulates the strategic risk now facing U.S. power in the Indo-Pacific. While U.S. naval vessels continue their patrols and military hardware flows to allies, a dangerous pattern has emerged: the institutional foundations that translate military presenceContinue Reading
As Donald Trump’s administration continues its relentless reorganization of the United States federal government, documents obtained by WIRED showed this week that the Department of Defense is looking at cutting as much as three-quarters of its workforce that’s specifically focused on stopping proliferation of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Meanwhile,Continue Reading
Uyghur separatist groups have consistently supported the Taliban in their two-decade-long fight for control of Afghanistan, but increased Chinese presence in the country is altering the status quo with significant risk for Beijing The Taliban have long provided members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), also known as theContinue Reading
