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Hello everyone,
Welcome to the 12th episode of my podcast - Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard. Today, we have a special podcast dedicated to recent developments in Syria that resulted in the downfall of the Assad regime – a family dynasty that ruled this important Middle Eastern country for over 50 years.
The tidal wave of events in Syria in the past couple of weeks has led to the emergence of a major rebel group known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led by an enigmatic leader who goes by the name of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Little is known about al-Jolani or his rebel group HTS, which was previously based in the northern Syrian province of Idlib and, in a matter of weeks seized the Syrian city of Aleppo and has now captured the Syrian capital of Damascus.
With Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad now in Moscow, a diverse array of groups are struggling for power in post-Assad Syria, which will likely affect the country’s future as a new interim government is being formed in Damascus. However, some outside experts fear post-Asad-Syria could become a repeat of post-Saddam Iraq as it seeks to overcome more than a decade of civil war.
Joining me to discuss these developments is former BBC World Correspondent and Islamic affairs expert Murad Batal Shishani. Mr Shishani is a leading expert on militant jihadist groups in the Middle East who has closely tracked groups like HTS, Islamic State, and its predecessor al-Qaeda. Murad is a Senior Resident Fellow at the New Lines Institute - Middle East Center and the Founder of Remarks on Political Violence research group.
Enjoy the podcast!Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my podcast - Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard!
In recent months, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been moving closer and closer to signing a major peace agreement in their ongoing efforts to end their territorial dispute and normalize relations. The prospects for peace continue to improve due to a series of important confidence-building measures that have taken place between the two countries, significantly improving the prospects for peace in the South Caucasus.
Emboldened by these developments the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev has stated that there have been tangible results in negotiations with Armenia, while the President of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has said that he would do everything possible to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan before the end of the year.
With a new US administration taking the helm of US foreign policy early next year Azerbaijan continues to occupy an important role in the Caspian and remains a strategically important country on the radar of the incoming administration after President-elect Trump spoke with President Aliyev earlier this week.
Joining us to discuss these recent developments is Elchin Amirbayov, who is Special Envoy of the President of Azerbaijan and is directly involved in the ongoing diplomatic negotiations. Mr Amirbayeov will shed some light on recent developments in the ongoing talks and examine Azerbaijan’s long journey to normalizing relations with Armenia.
Enjoy the podcast!
Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to the tenth episode of my podcast - Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard. Today I venture into the little-discussed world of the South Caucasus to examine the recent turmoil in Abkhazia. We are joined in this podcast by Ghia Nodia, Professor of Politics at Ilia Chavachadze State University in Tbilisi and Chairman of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development.
Ghia will be discussing the recent unrest in Abkhazia and will share his thoughts on the situation in Georgia’s breakaway province. Abkhazia experienced a bloody Russian-backed conflict in 1993 effectively ending Georgian rule that resulted in the creation of a Russian-backed protectorate still in existence for the past several decades. One of Abkhazia’s enduring features is it is blessed with a subtropical climate and an undeveloped beachfront property long coveted by Kremlin generals and Russia’s policymaking elite.
Ghia will update us on the situation inside Abkhazia and examine whether recent unrest in the Abkhazian capital of Sukhumi could become an Abkhaz version of Ukraine’s 2014 “Maidan” revolution. Ghia will also update us on the tense political situation in Georgia following the October 26 parliamentary elections and the ongoing political standoff between the Georgian Dream-ruled government and the Georgian opposition that has disrupted Georgia’s political stability for the past year.
Please note that the taping of this episode occurred before the resignation of Abakhazian President Aslan Bzhania on Tuesday, November 19. The situation in Abkhazia continues to evolve as Bzhania’s resignation was a concession to Abkhaz protestors who agreed to end their occupation of government buildings upon his resignation.
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my podcast Eyes on Eurasia, with Glen Howard! Today we are joined by Thomas Kent who is a Strategic Communications Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) in Washington, DC. Tom is a long-time expert on Russian propaganda and the author of two books on Disinformation.
His first book published in 2020 is entitled: Striking Back: Overt and Covert Options to Combat Russian Disinformation, while his second and most recent book is: How Russia Loses: Hubris and Miscalculation in Putin’s Kremlin published in 2023 by Lynne Rienner Publishers via The Jamestown Foundation.
Tom currently teaches at Columbia University about disinformation, and consults for governments, NGOs, news organizations, and corporations. From 2016 to 2018, Kent was president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a congressionally-financed company providing independent news in 27 languages to 23 countries. Before that, he was a correspondent and executive at the Associated Press, where he where he worked in a variety of positions, including Moscow bureau chief, as chief of operations in Iran during the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and as a correspondent at NATO and the European Union.
In my podcast, Tom will explore the world of Russian information operations which has taken a surprising turn in recent months beyond what we have been accustomed to. Russian propaganda has become more sophisticated in recent months as it has become more intertwined with espionage and money throughout Europe.
Enjoy the podcast!
Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my 8th Eyes on Eurasia podcast! For the past year, the Czech Republic has played a major role in launching a NATO-backed arms initiative to secure ammunition for Ukraine in its David versus Goliath struggle with Russia.
Since Czech President Petr Pavel first announced this initiative during the Munich Security Conference in February 2024, the Czech Republic has taken on the daunting challenge of helping Ukraine to secure 500,000 rounds of artillery munition using its global network of contacts in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
On average, Russia uses around 10,000 rounds per day in its intense artillery war against Ukraine, while Kyiv in turn, uses as much as 5,000 rounds of munition a day to counter Russian attacks. Needless to say, the artillery dimension of the war poses an enormous challenge for Ukraine and its NATO allies, as Europe lacks the defense industrial capacity to meet this threat.
Joining me to discuss the Czech arms initiative is Tomáš Kopečný who is the Czech Republic’s special envoy to Ukraine for the Czech ammunition initiative. Mr. Kopečný is a former Deputy Defense Minister in Czechia who has more than a decade of experience in defense and defense industrial base-related issues. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Journal, earlier this year he used the phrase from J.R.R. Tolkien to describe the Czech arms initiative in this way: “We are like hobbits - small and peaceful but in a moment of crisis we jump to forge alliances with more powerful countries and deliver results.”
Enjoy the podcast!
Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my 7th podcast Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard. In this episode, I will be discussing the looming Israeli military response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack that took place against Israel on October 1st - an unprecedented missile strike that involved nearly 200 Iranian ballistic missiles. In the coming days and weeks ahead Israel is likely to launch a retaliatory response that in the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will come “at a time of our own choosing.”
Joining me to share insight on how Iran might respond to an Israeli retaliatory attack is long-time Iran expert Alex Vatanka. Alex is the Director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute. Alex is the author of several books on Iran, and his most recent work is “The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry since 1979,” published by I.B. Taurus books in 2021.
In today’s discussion, Alex will be assessing the recent series of setbacks for Iran and its proxies in Lebanon that preceded the Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st. Alex will help us obtain a clearer picture of how Iran might respond to an Israeli retaliatory attack which may involve either one counter-strike or a whole host of retaliatory actions - ranging from an attack on Iran’s Persian Gulf oil terminal at Kharg Island - or a concentrated attack on Iranian nuclear facilities - all of which could occur on the eve of a major US Presidential Election in the United States.
Enjoy the podcast!
Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my sixth podcast Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard! In this episode, I will be discussing a recent Eye on Eurasia Special Report written by guest contributor Tim Thomas. The report is entitled The Ukraine Battle Lab: Russian Adaptations to Contemporary War’s High-Tech Developments and you can find a copy of this report prominently displayed on my substack website.
For those of you who are not familiar with Tim Thomas, he is one of the leading American experts on the Russian military. Tim is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and analyst with more than 27 years of experience at the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Tim is here today to discuss his recent report on how Russia has adapted to the war in Ukraine.
Enjoy the podcast!
Glen
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my latest podcast Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard! On September 26, it will be the two-year anniversary of the Nordstream 2 pipeline explosion, the strategic undersea gas pipeline in the Baltic that once delivered Russian gas to Germany.
Two years after the attack it remains a mystery as to who was behind this explosion with a lot of finger-pointing at both Russia and Ukraine. While the investigation is ongoing, new media reports have surfaced intensifying the controversy surrounding the attack.
Joining me to share new insight on the explosion is Dr. Benjamin Schmitt a former energy analyst at the US State Department who is one of the leading experts in the United States on Russian energy security. "Dr. Schmitt is currently a Senior Fellow with a joint academic appointment at the University of Pennsylvania in both the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. He is also an associate of the Harvard-Ukrainian Research Institute and an affiliate of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
In this podcast, Ben will be reviewing the mystery surrounding the Nordstream attack, having recently returned from a trip to the Baltic, where he conducted extensive field research, to get to the bottom of who blew up Nordstream II.
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Hello everyone!
Welcome to the fourth episode of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard. Events inside Russia’s Kursk province are now over a week old since the Ukrainian operations began on August 6th and Ukrainian military operations show no signs of slowing down as Ukrainian airborne forces continue their advances deeper into Kursk province.
To help us obtain deeper insight on these ongoing operations I am pleased to have retired Ukrainian Army General Volodymr Havrylov joining me to give a Ukrainian military perspective on the successes of these operations. General Havrylov will assess what Ukraine’s next steps might be as it enters uncharted waters. In addition,I am delighted to have former Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Wesley Clark join me to share his impressions about the ongoing Ukrainian raid into Kursk and how it could change the course of the war.
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Hello everyone,
Buckle up! With Kursk still in the news and the Ukrainian offensive still in high gear, I decided to obtain a Russian perspective on the ongoing military actions inside Russia. In this podcast, I will be discussing the Russian reaction to Ukraine’s recent Kursk offensive and how Russian President Vladimir Putin is handling the crisis.
Now over a week old the Russian government has been quite slow to react to the offensive as Ukrainian forces advance deeper into Russia’s Kursk province. Kyiv is now claiming it has seized 1,000 kilometers of Russian territory.
On August 14, another 6 villages fell to advancing Ukrainian forces. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been extremely slow to respond to the invasion calling Russian operations to evict the Ukrainian force from Kursk “a counter-terrorist operation to eradicate the Nazi Banderites.”
Kursk carries great historical significance in the Soviet Union’s vast mythology built around this battle fought 81 years ago this month which was one of the largest tank battles of the Second World War and certainly a major turning point in world history.
Military and security experts around the world continue to closely watch how President Putin handles this crisis which comes on the heels of the ill-fated 2023 Prigozin mutiny, now over a year old.
Joining me to discuss these events in Russia will be Dr. Pavel Luzin a well-known Russian expert who is a Visiting Scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School of Global Affairs at Tufts University.
Pavel will be assessing the Russian reaction to the crisis and how President Putin is handling the ongoing Ukrainian offensive and the triumvirate of power he has given to the host of Russian officials assigned to deal with the crisis.
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At long last American-made F-16s have appeared above the skies of Ukraine as many Ukrainians have anticipated their delivery, hoping these fourth-generation aircraft will be a game changer in the war. While F16s are vastly superior weapons compared to the older Soviet MiG29s, one of the key questions about the arrival of F16s is what their impact will be on the conflict and whether Ukrainian pilots will be able to master their advanced weaponry in a way that Kyiv can use these aircraft to defend its airspace and help turn the tide in the war. Joining me for this discussion is former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Philip M. Breedlove, who is a Distinguished Professor at the Nunn School of Government at Georgia Tech University and a frequent commentator on the war in Ukraine.
Glen’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to my inaugural podcast Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard. In this episode, I discuss the recent July 27 attack on Russia’s Wagner forces in Mali by the al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM militant group. The attack caused an estimated 82 Russian deaths and certainly ranks as one of the worst defeats for Putin’s Afrika Korps since Wagner mercenaries began operating in Africa.
No two experts are better qualified to discuss this topic than Jacob Zenn and Sergey Sukhankin. Jacob Zenn ranks as one of the leading experts in the world on African militant movements and insurgencies. In 2020 he wrote a groundbreaking book on the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram entitled Unmasking Boko Haram: Exploring Global Jihad in Nigeria. Sergey Sukhankin is equally qualified due to his extensive writings on Wagner’s overseas operations not just in Africa but other parts of the world. In 2020 he published a landmark study entitled War by Other Means: Russia’s Use of Private Military Contractors at Home and Abroad.
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