English Blogs

English Blogs · 25. September 2024

In a surprising turn of events, the 'Marxist Leninist’ politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake, representing the National Peoples Power as a front organisation of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), emerged as the new president of Sri Lanka following the presidential election on 21st September. This unexpected outcome has sparked a wave of interest and intrigue in the political landscape of the Island.

English Blogs · 21. September 2024

Sri Lanka’s complex geopolitical position in the Indian Ocean presents strategic vulnerabilities and opportunities. It profoundly impacts national security, foreign policy, regional geopolitical dynamics, and the island's domestic political environment. Sri Lanka’s geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean has attracted the interests of major global powers like China, India, and the US.

English Blogs · 09. August 2024

Since soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent imposition of unprecedented sanctions against Russia, reports persist that such sanctions are circumvented through Georgia. However, scrutinising trade data and other detailed information indicates that often cited increases in bilateral and transit trade from / through Georgia to Russia can be explained with harmless developments.

English Blogs · 13. Juni 2024

In late May 2024, the Swiss Institute for Global Affairs (SIGA) attended the BRICS Academic Forum in the Russian capital Moscow to better understand where BRICS is heading and what geopolitical impact this might have.

English Blogs · 14. Mai 2024

Ongoing large protests against a law proposal in Georgia that, depending on which side you ask, is aimed at defending Georgia from undue influence of foreign agents or undermining democracy and stifling dissent, are shining a spotlight on how the issue of alleged foreign agents has become contentious not only in Georgia but in various countries.

English Blogs · 24. April 2024

The South Caucasus, a small region between the Black and the Caspian Seas, between Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, continues to be haunted by conflicts that date back to the Soviet era but also stands in front of new perspectives to orientate itself more towards Europe.

English Blogs · 14. März 2024

Since autumn 2023, there have been claims that a port in Ochamchire, a district in Abkhazia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, will become a new hub for the Russian Black Sea Fleet and that this could extend the bloody war in Ukraine to the Caucasus. However, recent satellite and drone imagery of the port in Ochamchire obtained by SIGA shows that, so far, nothing of relevance has happened there

English Blogs · 21. Februar 2024

As SIGA can exclusively reveal, the Afghan Taliban have, in separate secret meetings with Tajik officials and the jihadist group Ansorullah Tajikistan in Afghanistan, been attempting to broker peace negotiations between these two sides. Such efforts prove to be fraught with difficulties though and their outcome remains uncertain, if not outright doubtful - meaning that worries about foreign jihadists in Afghanistan will remain a geopolitically hot topic.

English Blogs · 01. November 2023

While the European Union is set to decide again on whether to grant Georgia the status of a EU membership candidate, ongoing political controversies in the small Caucasus republic — including government allegations that opposition forces plan to overthrow the elected government in a coup and opposition claims of a pro-Russian government undermining Georgia’s democracy and Western aspirations — loom large over this coming EU decision. And Georgia’s future.

English Blogs · 25. Juli 2023

Since almost two years, Afghanistan is governed by the Taliban. Reports about their Islamist rule are often on polarising ends. Many draw the picture of a terror regime, under which everybody is threaten with death and no normal life is possible. The Taliban are rejecting this and pride themselves to have brought peace and quiet to the warn-torn country at the Hindu Kush, which is confirmed by some others. The truth lies somewhere in between.