“Moscow still hasn’t worked out a strategy on the North Caucasus and hasn’t even tried,” Alexei Malashenko said. “The Kremlin doesn’t want to recognize there’s a real Islamic opposition.”
Conflict
Cracks in the Russian Regime
The paradox of the costly retention of Chechnya is that few Russians view the North Caucasus as an integral part of Russia worth keeping.
Where Kosovo’s Ethnic Lines Are Drawn Most Starkly
During NATO airstrikes, Serbian forces raged through the city, expelling Albanians and torching their homes. Today, only women and children venture to the Serb side of the river.
The Private Security State
In November 1994, retired Air Force Col. Ron Hatchett received a mysterious phone call from a man who once supplied the Afghan Mujahadeen with 10,000 mules. The caller offered Hatchett $100,000 to spend six months advising the Bosnian government.
Tables Turn on Serbs in Kosovo
The three frightened Serbian Orthodox nuns steered their four-wheel drive up a steep gravel path to their isolated hilltop monastery. The sight that confronted them brought tears to their eyes.
Problems Sink In for Serbs
“Now it’s back to reality,” says Teofil Pancic. “Reality is neither peace nor war. It’s the depression of realizing you’ll go on living in a society like Milosevic’s Serbia.”
On US Patrol to Stem Kosovo Chaos
“I know this has been going on for about 600 years,” says Spc. Daniel Atchison, an Indianian with a slight drawl. “Sometimes it confuses me. These people lived next to each other for years, and one night they decide to burn their neighbor’s house down, just because he’s Serb or Albanian.”
Grand Hotel Pristina: Where Guests Tote Guns, Cameras
Once Serif Turgut was attacked by a mob of Serb demonstrators in front of the hotel. A receptionist came out to rescue her, joking, “We can give up Serbia but not our guests.”
A Family Who Crossed Kosovo’s Ethnic Divide
When Milka Jakupi first met her husband in a Belgrade movie theater in 1966, Yugoslavia was still a country where love mattered more than ethnic background.
Wild Rides and Waiting Games in Remote Afghanistan
Just one seat away on the helicopter sits Commander Masood himself. As I prepare to introduce myself, I notice his lips are moving in silent prayer. I wonder if I shouldn’t be doing the same.
