Russia’s alleged “wet work” and maneuvering outside the United States in the last two weeks has been even more impressive.

In Montenegro, a tiny and relatively young Balkan nation sandwiched between Bosnia and Albania, a cabal of Russian nationalists has been accused of trying to assassinate the prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, following a campaign of election interference. U.S. officials say the abortive putsch bear all the hallmarks of a Kremlin project of subversion, including the funneling of money to a pro-Moscow opposition party, biased news organizations, and key “influencers.”

A former Serbian special forces commander and Serbian veterans of the Russian-backed “separatist” movement in east Ukraine were part of the conspiracy.

The result would be the installation of a Kremlin-friendly government in place of Djukanovic’s pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists, itself a liberalized hangover or reinvention of the old Yugoslavian Communist party.

Indeed, Serbia has since expelled several Russian nationals from its borders after they were found to have been tracking Djukanovic’s movements digitally and communicating with one another on encrypted electronic devices.

The expulsions also coincided with a visit paid to the capital Belgrade by Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor organ of the Soviet KGB, and now the chairman of Russia’s Security Council. This concatenation of circumstances, Balkan watchers have written, suggest the long, dark arm of Moscow.

Of particular concern to is that one alleged participants in the Montenegrin plot is Bratislav Dikic, a former Serbian special forces commander, who was sacked for criminal and “terrorist” activity. Another conspirator has been identified as Aleksandar Sindjelic, a well-known Serbian fascist who is one of the top 300 “terrorists” being sought by the Ukrainian government for his participation in Russia’s dirty war in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk—a war thetas overseen by Russian intelligence officers, paratroopers and special forces.

So why overthrow Djukanovic? He has been an ardent advocate and architect of Montenegro’s NATO membership, which is set to commence next spring, making it the 29th state in the U.S.-led (and now, under a Trump presidency, rather fragile) military alliance

Putin regime openly opposes both decisions, although it categorically denies it had anything to do with trying to kill Montenegro’s prime minister. Special prosecutor Milivoje Katnic has also conceded, “We don’t have any evidence that the state of Russia is involved in any sense.”

Agents of the GRU, or Russian military intelligence—one of two spy services that hacked the Democratic National Committee—have been accused of underwriting a prominent neo-Nazi organization whose elderly founder, 76-year-old István Győrkös, last month shot and killed a Hungarian police officer and critically wounded another in the village of Bőny.

In an interview on Al-Ahed satellite TV Oct. 31, Kadhim al-Shammari, the head of Al-Watnayh coalition, said that his bloc supports “the appointment of a military governor for Mosul, as a part of Abadi’s constitutional powers.”

Jaafar told Al-Monitor, “The only solution to protect the future of Mosul lies in Abadi’s proposal during the National Alliance’s meeting on Oct. 17. The proposal provides for selecting a citizen of the city who would be widely acceptable by the various political parties and not affiliated with any of the political parties to serve as military governor in Ninevah. His task would be to govern Ninevah militarily, until the provincial councils are elected, hopefully next year.”

In light of the conflict flaring in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, there are several proposals to guarantee the future of the disputed city. The Kurds believe that declaring Sinjar an independent province is a logical solution that would meet the partners’ desires. The Turkmens and Christians perceive that turning Tal Afar and the Ninevah Plains into provinces will ease the fears of the political partners. Also, former Governor of Ninevah province Atheel al-Nujaifi desires to turn Ninevah into an independent region.

In case Abadi fails to appoint the Mosul military governor, other scenarios will be put forward to manage the city, including that the former governor takes over his previous tasks, which is rejected by some parties that accuse Nujaifi of collaborating with neighboring countries.

President-elect Donald Trump believes the the Obama administration has weakened the American military.

Trump called for 90,000 more Army soldiers, a 350-ship Navy, 100 more fighters, and strengthened nuclear and missile defenses.

The call for a 350-ship Navy gives a concrete clue. Cost figures on such a naval buildup are elusive. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has compiled studies of the different kinds of ships in a 350-ship navy. They don’t come cheap.

There would be increased spending on aircraft carriers and a big increase in attack submarines. In December 2008, the Navy signed a $14 billion contract with General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman to supply eight Virginia-class attack submarines. In round figures they might cost, in years to come, at least $2 billion apiece. The CRS study said that going to a 350-ship navy would mean 11 more of these. That’s $22 billion just on these subs. Congressional hawks – numerous and powerful – will pressure Trump to go that way.

“We are happy that Clinton did not win. This is for sure. She’s the one who considered all these terrorist, Islamist, jihadist groups as moderate rebels,”

Donald Trump has echoed the regime’s claims saying, during a debate with Hillary Clinton in October, “I don’t like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS.”

The United Kingdom only publicly admitted to the existence of Exactor in 2014. By the time the BBC special aired, the Exactor had already been in combat for more than three years.

In April 2007, the Defense Ministry decided in April to buy 12 M-113 armored personnel carriers fitted with Israel’s Spike Non-Line of Sight missiles, or Spike-NLOS. To speed things up, British authorities leased two more M-113s directly from Israeli Defense Force stocks.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the British purchase, the weapons were not new or particularly controversial. Israel defense contractor Rafael started work on the first Spike missiles in the late 1970s to counter hordes of Egyptian and Syrian tanks.

Depending on the variant, Spike missiles can plunge down on the vulnerable top armor of a tank up five miles away. Spike-NLOS — standing for non-line of sight — can strike targets up to 26 kilometers away, more than three times the range of these earlier versions. The 150 pound missiles, which the Israelis call Tamuz, have an estimated cost of $100,000 each.

Rafael offers a variant of Spike-NLOS with fragmentation warhead ideal for blasting enemy troops.

In Iraq, British troops would have relied on the Watchkeeper 450 drone to find the mark.

This sort of control system means troops can adjust targets on the fly. A soldier can even abort the attack if civilians enter the target zone.

As a result, the missile teams can perform the same role as a precision airstrike, but much faster and cheaper. In a video from Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon, a Spike-NLOS missile soars over twenty kilometers overhead before dropping precisely through the window of a house.

“In the last five years, the Ministry of Defense has purchased the Exactor weapons system, comprising Exactor 2 palletized launchers and Exactor Mark 5 missiles, from a contractor based in Israel,” the ruling Conservative Party’s Lord John Astor explained. This was the first time a British government official had used missile’s name in public.

Of course, Astor declined to mention the United Kingdom had acquired 600 Mark 2 and Mark 4 versions in 2007. It later emerged that the delta-winged Mark 2 was difficult to control and was actually too fast to easily hit targets at shorter ranges, according to Think Defence.

The slower, straight-winged Mark 4 was both easier to handle and had an improved thermal camera to see in the dark. In 2010, the United Kingdom hired Rafael to produce a further improved Mark 5 missile.

On top of that, the United Kingdom ditched the M-113-based launchers, which were poorly air-conditioned and difficult to keep running. The carriers had little in common with other British Army armored vehicles to begin with.

The new Mark 5 weapons came with simpler, flatbed trailer launchers holding four missiles. The U.K. Defense Ministry dubbed the whole arrangement the Exactor 2.

In June 2016, British Army crews brought the missiles out for a training exercise with Royal Marines and Dutch Marines. In an article about the war game, the Royal Navy described Exactor as similar to the shorter range, shoulder-launched Javelin missile.

The recent launch is part of a three-phased naval construction program to build up the ROKN attack submarine force. South Korea currently operates a fleet of nine 1,200-ton Chang Bogo-class diesel-electric attack submarines – a variant of the German Type 209 boat. Under the first phase, the ROKN is planning to upgrade all nine Chang Bogo-class submarines with air-independent propulsion and flank-array sonars over the next few years.

The nine Son Won II-class vessels are part of the second phase of the ROKN’s so-called Korean Attack Submarine program. The third and final phase (and also the most ambitious part of the project) will be the construction of nine indigenously produced 3,000-ton diesel-electric attack submarines – designated KSS-III – equipped with air-independent propulsion and multiple vertical launch tubes from which Hyunmoo-3C cruise missiles with a range of up to 1,500 kilometers can be fired.

SINGAPORE -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's likelihood of increasing military and infrastructure spending could be positive for state-linked defense and commercial manufacturer Singapore Technologies Engineering, said the company's president and CEO Vincent Chong on Thursday.

"If there is an increase in defense spending, it would be a positive development for us in the U.S. But we have to watch whether it will come through," said Chong, emphasizing that there was still "uncertainty" over what Trump really stood for. Chong was speaking at a briefing of the company's financial results.

In his presidential election campaign, Trump promised a shift in U.S. national security policy which includes a dramatic jump in military spending. Trump's call for an increase in the number of soldiers, navy ships, nuclear and missile defenses could add up to as much as $1 trillion in military spending, according to some experts.

ST Engineering's business lines include supplying naval vessels, weapons, munitions and other military equipment to defense forces around the world. Military customers include those in Brazil, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the U.S. In the quarter ended in September, clients in the U.S. were the second-largest contributor to the company's topline after Asia, accounting for 25% of revenue.

Trump has also spoken on plans to boost infrastructure spending. This can also buoy ST Engineering's businesses, said the company, as it has a U.S.-based arm that provides specialty vehicles for construction sites. If the Trump administration increases infrastructure spending, "it is quite likely that [our] business will benefit," said Ravinder Singh, president of ST Kinetics.

ST Engineering said that net profit for the third quarter ended September dropped 42.5% on the year to 76.6 million Singapore dollars ($54.7 million), due to S$61.1 million in impairment and closure costs for Jiangsu Huatong Kinetics, a joint venture with a Chinese state-owned company.

There is a risk that Russia will manage to transform Belarus into a Cold War outpost in order to generate conventional and hybrid threats to NATO member states and Ukraine. The Kremlin may also destabilise the political and military situation in Belarus if it decides that Aliaksandr Lukashenka is crossing too many red lines.

NATO’s plan to deploy four multinational battalions on its Eastern flank in order to undermine the strategic stability of the region.

Russia has already taken “defensive” measures against a possible Western threat, and the Kremlin is trying to persuade Minsk to do the same.

The formation of the joint military organisation of the Union State (by 2018) and the conducting of joint large scale military drills such as 'West'/'Zapad' have helped Moscow undermine Belarus’s image as an open and reliable partner with an independent, predictable, and peaceful military policy.

Moscow has already established the first Guards tank army on the Belarusian direction and re-deployed the 20th Guards Army to the Ukrainian border to assist in the hybrid war conflict in Donbas.

The Kremlin also plans to form new motorised (mechanised) and tank divisions in the Western military district and one motorised (mechanised) division in the South military district. Moscow is also rearranging the 11th Army Corps in Kaliningrad, providing it with additional facilities to enforce two motorised (mechanised) brigades to division level.

One of these is stationed in Klintsy, Bryansk region, 40 km from the Belarusian border, and will be upgraded to a mechanised regiment. The second one is located in Yelnya, Smolensk region, 90 km from the Belarusian border, and will be reinforced to a mechanised division at the beginning of 2017.

According to the Global Militarization Index, Belarus remains among the ten most militarised countries in Europe, placing 12th out of a total of 152 countries, leaving Poland (68), Latvia (85), Lithuania (63), and Estonia (25) far behind. From this point of view, Minsk doesn’t have any reason to be concerned.

The fact that Russia has sent 'Iskanders'-- nuclear-capable missile systems -- to Kaliningrad, and deployed 'Kalibrs' -- capable long range missile warships and submarines -- to the Baltic Sea support the fear that Russia may use nuclear weapons in a hypothetical conflict with NATO.

Russian military analysts believe that the West will be able to separate Belarus and other Eastern Partnership countries from Russia and draw them into its sphere of influence by the end of this year. Such analysis is problematic, as the normalisation with the West has obvious limits. Moreover, Belarus is not planning to join the EU and NATO or even sign an Association agreement in the foreseeable future.

Norway recently invited 330 U.S. Marines to its country for winter warfare exercises and Russia went all nuclear over it.

Frants Klintsevitsj, the deputy chairman of Russia’s defense and security committee, said on national TV that a nuclear strike was on the table over the Devil Dog deployment.

But how much damage can 330 U.S. Marines and their personal gear do? We did a little research, and it turns out Russia’s response might have been spot on.

Join us for an entertaining discussion of Marine Corps history and learn about its fearsome reputation.

To become a member of the U.S. military, every troop must take an oath to follow the orders of the president, regardless of that service member’s political affiliation or personal opinions.

That separation allows commanders advising President Trump to refuse to follow orders that call for committing war crimes, like his proposal to kill the families of suspected terrorists. In March, Trump said he would force the military to commit war crimes.

If President Trump proposes an idea the military uniformly considers legal but dangerous, commanders have a knack for stonewalling to buy time in hopes for crisis to pass, much as the military did in 1970 when President Nixon wanted to launch strikes in the Middle East.

“I will obey the orders of the president of the United States. I will obey the orders of the president of the United States. I will obey the orders of the president of the United States—unless ordered to do something illegal.”

Will a man who has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin protect U.S. allies that also are Putin’s foes, like Ukraine?

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assessed that the cluster of island bases will provide China with the ability to “deploy a range of offensive and defensive military capabilities,” as well as “significant capacity to quickly project substantial offensive military power to the region.”

As the U.S. Army and Marine Corps move ahead with their new multi-domain battle concept, the rapid development of China’s artificial island bases presents itself as a looming real-world problem that requires a specific military solution, and soon.

Enter the surface-to-surface missiles that either are or will be in the arsenals of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps: the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS, in service) and Long Range Precision Fires missile (LRPF, under development with a planned deployment date of 2027). While China has, over the last decade or two, deployed large numbers of precision-strike long-range surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles, the United States has been slower to do so, limited in part by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty but also by qualms about the employment of non-nuclear ballistic missiles—concerns that the Chinese leadership clearly does not share.

The proximity of China’s artificial islands to allied territory, along with the planned greater reach of the LRPF missile, could provide an opportunity for an alternative approach.

Some accounting is in order: first, based on recent export sales figures, individual ATACMS missiles appear to cost approximately $1.1 million each; their associated air-transportable mobile launchers cost approximately $3.5 million apiece. While these missiles would not be appropriate for truly long-range, penetrating-strike or air-sea-control applications, for the particular problem set of “kicking down the door” of China’s artificial island bases, this appears to be a relatively inexpensive solution.

Similarly, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a voluntary regime to which the United States also subscribes, restricts the export (by the United States) of missiles and related technologies capable of carrying a payload past three hundred kilometers. As a likely result, the maximum stated range of the current fielded (and exported) version of ATACMS is three hundred kilometers, and the maximum planned range of the next-generation LRPF missile is five hundred kilometers

This campaign would rain down difficult-to-stop mach-3 missiles from road-mobile launchers hidden in the rugged terrain of the Philippines onto China’s painstakingly constructed island bases. Stealthy ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) platforms such as low-observable drones or submarines (or even drones launched from submarines) could essentially be used as artillery spotters, operating from within China’s anti-air/anti-ship missile umbrella to provide real-time fire direction and battle-damage assessment. The advantages of this concept would include reduced risk associated with keeping high-value, but non-stealthy, strike platforms outside of China’s anti-air and anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles’ coverage areas until after their reduction by U.S. ballistic missile fire.

ATACMS missiles were similarly used for air-defense suppression during both U.S. invasions of Iraq as a way to strike missile defenses with low risk and reduce the danger to follow-on strike aircraft, and Air Force special-operations forces still train to do so. Additionally, the relatively quick flight time (about ten minutes at the most) and potential speed of targeting (little strike package planning required) could help to negate the current ability of China’s road-mobile missile systems to pack up and move frequently or after detecting an inbound subsonic cruise-missile attack. Given the air-transportability of the latest mobile ATACMS/LRPF launchers, they could rapidly be flown in to deal with this target set.

United States has already demonstrated the ability to deploy ATACMS to the Philippines, Manila has shown interest in buying the system and development of the LRPF missile has been quite public, the resulting potential peril to China’s island bases could be made more explicit. For example, additional deterrent value could be gained by the demonstration of rapid and large-scale joint deployment (via U.S. Air Force heavy lift) of Marine and Army ATACMS units, with large numbers of missile reloads brought in by Navy high-speed logistics ships into austere port facilities—as they might have to be in the face of China’s own land-attack ballistic and cruise missiles.

these missiles could even be fired from logistics vessels or any other platform with an open deck that can carry a truck-mounted launcher. Perhaps the United States should also consider a specific waiver to the current U.S. policy on submunitions to support their use against China’s artificial islands, which, after all, were built from scratch as isolated facilities with no native civilian population. In any case, the timeline for action is short.

Weapons experts have also been working on a high-tech explosives system, labelled the 'Alpha Device,' to work in tandem with the Flight surveillance robots. The Device boasts several grenade launchers with an impressive range of almost 400m

The first of the two new robots will act as a pair of scrupulous eyes for Russian border guards.

The 'Flight' robot is armed with an array of state-of-the-art surveillance tools to spot potential intruders, such as low-flying drones and other vehicles, from over six miles away.

Russian engineers claim it could be used to pick out targets for long-range explosive weaponry.

But the impressive device will mostly be used for general surveillance.

The Flight robot can not only monitor the precise location of incoming drones, but also find information on their origin and even track the arc of their movement through the sky.

Russian robot system can detect, track and fire on targets

It will help Russian authorities catch out the increasing numbers of surveillance flights made into Russian airspace by Western spy agencies, as tensions between Moscow and the West continue to escalate.

'In its structure there is a radar unit that detects a target: humans to about 7km distance, a car up to 10km,' chief project engineer Dmitry Perminov told Russian news media.

Executive Director of 'Flight' Leo Nosenko went on to confirm that the team have already held discussions with Moscow on rolling out operational tests with several Russian military departments.

We have summarized his response below.

1. Veterans come from a previous culture built for mission accomplishment in mind.

“Few cultures have been engineered like the one military veterans have been a part of and even fewer … focuses entirely on mission achievement, cooperation and personal development. The fact is that there is no culture in the world that shapes people in the way the military does,” Davis notes.

2. Veterans have ingrained leadership talents

The average age of a Marine, Davis notes, is 19. At 20, most Marines become non-commissioned officers who are placed in leadership positions. As one advances through the military’s ranks, the burden of leadership becomes greater and greater.

3. Veterans take their responsibilities seriously

“Military people get responsibility because when they were very young there were serious consequences to the decisions they made,” writes Davis. Veterans have passed through trials that most people haven’t, ensuring that they are responsible individuals who can successfully carry out their duties.

4. Intuition is a skill, and the military teaches it

“What many people think is that leaders are born. Not in the military. The fact is that many people in military are faced with making life and death decisions in the blink of an eye,” Davis writes. Military personnel have been trained to absorb as much information as possible from a variety of sources — so as to always intuit the best choice available to them.

5. Military people will openly tell you when something is wrong

Military personnel have a questioning and honest mentality, and will not be afraid of telling bosses when an idea could use a second look.

6. Military people will get the job done

“Military people know what it means to have something that needs to be done. They have a sense of urgency and have seen the world through a big picture type mentality,” notes Davis.

7. When given the necessary support, veterans are extremely capable

“When given a proper framework and adequate training [veterans] can amaze you at how hard they can work and what they can get done,” Davis writes.

8. Veterans are independent

Veterans are more likely than other demographic groups to start their own businesses, and possess a resourcefulness can help companies grow quickly from the inside.

9. Military personnel know the meaning of hard work

“When on deployment we also work every day. Every single day. There are no holidays, no weekends, no birthdays. It is the same thing every day,” notes Davis.

10. The government pays for veteran education

The government provides veterans with financial assistance for pursuing higher education. By hiring a veteran, companies ensure that they will have employees who can consistently improve while on the job through continuing education initiatives.

China showed off two anti-stealth radars at Zhuhai. The first, the JY-27A 3-D long-range surveillance/guidance radar, is a Very High Frequency (VHF) radar that, according to Shephard Media, is the Chinese military's first active-phased array radar. VHF radars, with their longer wavelengths, are more likely to detect stealth aircraft, and it's been known that China has been working on them for some time now.

Phased-array radars, unlike traditional "dish" radars, are flat panels composed of hundreds of smaller transmit/receive panels. While traditional radars are like turning on a flashlight in a dark room—everyone can see where the beam of light is coming from—phased array radars are more difficult to detect. They're also less susceptible to jamming.

The article states "There are unverified claims that the radar can pick up hostile stealth fighters at ranges of up to 500km (310 miles.)" If so, that would out-stick American stealth aircraft, revealing them before they could get into a fight.

Another anti-stealth radar on display at Zhuhai was the JY-26 Skywatcher-U. This radar works in a broader bandwidth, in VHF and Ultra-High Frequency bands. According to Shephard Media, it has a range of 310 miles and can track up to 500 targets at once. Intriguingly, it claims that while under development in Shandong, China it was able to track American F-22 Raptors flying over South Korea.

While China's claim of detecting the F-22 sounds impressive, there is one awfully big caveat to go along with it. F-22 Raptors did briefly visit Osan Air Force Base in South Korea on February 17th, 2016. However, they were fitted with external fuel tanks that allowed them to easily make the trip from Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa to Osan. Large drop tanks hanging off their wings would have ruined their stealthy profile, making them much more visible to radar, so it's not entirely surprising that a radar would have detected them.

Does this mean stealth is dead? Not every radar is a VHF radar, and stealth is still useful against radars that are not VHF. Stealth also likely decreases the range at which radars such as Skywatcher can acquire targets. Stealth is part of the package of essential features of a modern combat aircraft, as important as electronic countermeasures, radars, or and defensive systems. Stealth, whether anyone likes it or not, is here to stay.

Security forces and army infantry divisions, backed by a U.S.-led air force, are preparing to move on southern and northern districts of Mosul in coming days, to step up pressure on the militants.

Kurdish peshmerga and Shi'ite paramilitary forces are holding territory to the northeast and to the west.

On the eastern front, special forces pushed into the Qadisiya al-Thaniya district, on the northern edge of the small pocket of neighborhoods they control so far, Sabah al-Numani, spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Service, told Reuters.

"We have encountered heavy resistance from the enemy," he said, with what he called "obstructive patrols" of militant forces trying to hold up the advance.

"We are facing the most difficult form of urban warfare, fighting with the presence of civilians, but our forces are trained for this sort of combat."

A Reuters correspondent in Kokjali, on the eastern edge of the city, saw U.S. Apache helicopters overhead. Explosions, either from air strikes or suicide car bombs which the jihadists have deployed in the hundreds since the campaign started on Oct. 17, could be heard against a backdrop of artillery fire.

Inside Mosul, a city which is still home to up to 1.5 million people, residents said this week that the militants had killed at least 20 people and displayed their bodies - five of them crucified - as a warning against acting as informants for Iraqi forces.

The U.N. human rights office said a total of 40 people were reportedly shot on Tuesday for "treason and collaboration" with Iraqi security forces, and a 27-year-old man was shot for using a mobile phone.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani also said the jihadists were reportedly stockpiling ammonia and sulfur in civilian areas, possibly for use as chemical weapons.

A source in the city contacted by Reuters said the militants were allowing some relatives of Islamic State supporters to evacuate and head west to Syria.

"This is the next step. These are air defense capabilities on operational and strategic levels," he said. The S-500 "allows us to protect entire regions from intercontinental ballistic missiles and other advanced weapons, including hypersonic glide vehicles currently under development in the United States."

The analyst added that the S-500 will also be capable of hitting targets in near space, including satellites outfitted with electro-optical surveillance systems.
Murakhovsky further said that the S-500 has canceled out multi-billion dollar advanced weapons programs which the United States has pursued.

The S-500 has "displeased" the Pentagon since the US Department of Defense "has spent so much on creating the so-called Prompt Global Strike (PGS) initiative, as well as hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles," the analyst said. "All of this has gone down the drain. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars!"

The S-500, designed by Almaz Antey, is said to have a range of 600 kilometers (more than 370 miles). The system can simultaneously intercept up to ten ballistic and hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed of 7 kilometers per second. The Prometey is capable of engaging targets at an altitude of up to 200 kilometers (more than 120 miles).

Donald Trump's foreign policy adviser has signalled major shifts in Middle East strategy, including a review of the Iran nuclear deal, the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and stating that the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated a "terrorist" organisation by the United States.

The US House Judiciary Committee in February approved legislation calling on the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a foreign terrorist organisation. The Senate has referred a partner bill to its foreign relations committee.

Trump stoked controversy by appointing Phares to his campaign. Phares has been called a "key ideologue" of a far-right Lebanese Christian militia that committed war crimes during the Lebanese civil war.

“The decision to select a proven anti-Muslim propagandist as his foreign policy adviser is particularly troubling in light of Donald Trump’s escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric…” the ADC said in a release in March. “Trump’s campaign of bigotry and xenophobia has already attracted the support of many domestic hate groups, and the selection of Dr Phares broadens the Trump campaign’s appeal to include international sectarianism as well.”

Born in Lebanon in 1957 to a Maronite Christian family, Phares graduated from the University of Beirut with degrees in political science and sociology.

Phares has written several books and research papers on topics ranging from pluralism to the Iranian Revolution, radical Islam and the War on Terror.

Away from his political and academic careers, Phares has been less public about another chapter of his life: his time as a high-ranking political official in a militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

Before becoming Trump’s foreign-policy adviser, Phares served as a terrorism guru for the president-elect.