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The regime’s greatest protector and greatest threat: military policy in Tajikistan

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Every state needs an army, and Tajikistan is no different. In Tajikistan, the army is made up of multiple military and paramilitary branches, which all serve to protect the dictatorial regime of Emomali Rahmon from internal and external threat. This army js Rahmon's most important tool to keep power, but also the seems to be the greatest current threat to that same power.  History and origin of the armed forces In most post-soviet states, the current structure of the armed forces is based on, at least originally, Soviet armed formations. In the Tajik SSR, the main armed formation had been the 201 st motor rifle division, which it follows should have been the backbone of the new military of the independent Tajikistan. Tajikistan was, however, not granted control of the division, which remained under Moscow’s command as a Russian foreign military installation. [1] The 201 st had participated in the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, where Central Asians notably were kept away ...
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Artsakh is gone. What now?

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  With the new year comes a change in the map that straddles the line between a de facto and a de jure development. As of January 1st, 2024, the Republic of Artsakh no longer exists, ending its 32-year history as an independent yet unrecognized state. The republic controlled most of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and until 2020 also other territories internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. On the 19 th of September 2023 Azerbaijani military forces moved into the territory of Artsakh from multiple directions [1] . Fears of a third Nagorno-Karabakh war were halted by the surrender of the military of Artsakh the following day. With no support from the weakened Armenia and no hope of intervention by any great power, the government of Artsakh had no means to continue the fight alone. The surrendered government promised to dissolve Artsakh in January 2024 [2] . Artsakh’s dissolution marks the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, but it may not end the Armenia-Azerbaijan conf...
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One year of war in Sudan

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On the 15 th of April 2023 a new war broke out in Sudan. Sudan’s largest paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), initiated attacks against their supposed allies in the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in nearly every major city across Sudan in what appeared to be some sort of an attempted coup. What started with clashes between former allies as part of a personal power struggle has turned into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. One year and thousands of deaths into the war there is no military end in sight, and the world’s traditional peacemaker countries are conspicuously absent in talks. The leader of the RSF is a man named Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, usually known by his nickname “Hemedti”. He had been the second in command in Sudan’s transitional sovereignty council led by his friend and close ally Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The relationship between these two men is central in Sudanese politics, and the breakdown in their relations is what caused one of the worst ongoi...
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