Chinese President Xi Jinping's 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) vision, heralded as an attempt to revive the pre-modern Silk Route, is intended to strengthen West Asia's economic links with China through ambitious infrastructural projects. Central to this are fast-track rail links, funded by the...

Domestic repression and external autonomy of Belarus have developed in cyclical patterns since its independence. The country's narrowed action space that followed its elections in August 2020 has affected, not least, the security situation in the Baltic Sea region. Relations between Minsk and...