North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Today, Moscow kicked off its controversial, week-long "Zapad-2017" drill, the latest iteration of a series of training maneuvers that began under the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and which has angered and put NATO and Baltic States leaders on edge. Land, sea and air units will be taking part in war games until the 21st of September across a huge area encompassing western Russia, Belarus, the Baltic Sea and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Confirming, and sending the clearest sign of his previously discussed pivot toward Russia and away from NATO and the West, on Tuesday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey had signed a deal to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system, and paid the first installment.

As the two old, cold war adversaries, Russia and NATO, prepare to begin massive war games to show off their respective military strengths, it was the UK's turn to accuse Russia first of "testing the West" by conducting war games on NATO’s eastern flank in its biggest military exercise in four years. Speaking on BBC's “The Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that Russia's exercise "is designed to provoke us, it’s designed to test our defenses, and that’s why we have to be strong.

In a widely anticipated national address, President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will not pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying he’s committed to a new strategy aimed at winning the nation’s longest war, now in its 17th year. Admitting that his "original instinct was to pull out" of Afghanistan - which in retrospect had been a mistake - Trump said he’s arrived at three "fundamental conclusions" about America’s core interests in Afghanistan:

Authored by Henrik Choy via NationalInterest.org,

Can common enemies and threats keep Britain and the United States together for decades to come?