While the terms juche (spirit of self-reliance and songun (military first are relatively well-known to a broad audience, a fresh concept that has taken shape under the young North Korea leader is a novelty. Let’s take the opportunity now to fill the reader’s possible...

Rapidly degra- ding political and economic situation in Afghanistan has a direct impact on the development of drug trafficking and drug cultivation, and production of hard drugs. Measures taken by the Drug Combating Ministry of IRA as well as the aid provided to the country...

The decision regarding chemical weapons opens up a certain possibility of normalising the overall situation in Syria. Although, it is still too early to say that Syria has reached the point of no return in regulating the whole issue as the future of the country is still up in the air. On the...

This September, Shinzo Abe and Stephen Harper, the Prime Ministers of Japan and Canada, decided to start negotiations and they are going to discuss the issue of importing into Japan shale gas from Canada. Abe mentioned the gas pipeline project, where a number of Japanese firms will be engaged...

The third reason for the North Korean famine is the natural disasters in 1995-1997 when the economy began to deteriorate dramatically faster due to natural disasters. Nature dealt North Korea a very serious and complex blow. First, agriculture...

"Slon" internet magazine published an article by A. Lankov titled "How many people actually died of starvation in North Korea" that caused quite a stir in some circles. The scientist, who is hardly a proponent of Pyongyang, dared to challenge the commonly-held view that three million people...

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is gaining speed. Just recently, the Pentagon began the relocation of its forces from the Manas transit centre in Kyrgyzstan, which will be transferred to local authorities by July 2014. By that time most of the International Security Assistance... 

In the course of the past few days, the U.S. raised its budget debt ceiling yet again. The government can again start increasing its debt obligations, which, incidentally, do not need any extra stimulation. The world...

On the eve of the Islamic offensive, Syria had already suffered a considerably severe blow. It fell on Syria in the form of the global financial crisis which caused Syrian rates of economic growth to plummet from 5% to 2% by 2011. Although the losses were not critical then, it is evident...

Syria has been living the past three years completely engulfed in rampant terror and threats to the population, which are actively being used to demoralise the administration and force it to leave the political arena. The fact that the military campaigns have a localized nature does not...

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”...William Butler Yeats, from his poem The Second Coming. Yeats certainly caught the essence of the American political folly that has been on stage for the past two weeks. I was going to write this column two days...

Another acute angle of bilateral economic relations in the foreseeable term will still be Russian exports to Turkey. The fact is that only large domestic companies are capable of getting established in the Turkish market, particularly in the energy sphere, whilst...