This 2025 update on Russia is from a geo-political perspective to include a strategic to operational overview of their military and what’s new in terms of strategy and approach.  My sources include the US DNI Annual Threat Assessment, released a couple of months ago and the DC based think tank – the Center for European Policy Analysis or CEPA’s recent paper titled “Russia’s Strategy and Military Thinking: Evolving Discourse by 2025”.  Also, the US Army’s ATP 7-100.1 which was released in 2024.

The PRC now routinely operates within a spectrum of Gray Zone activities that it executes in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.  The Rand Corporation recently published a report titled: “Understanding and Countering China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations”.  This report is focused on China’s campaign of coercive activities that lie in the “operational space between peace and war”.  More and more, we are seeing China exert control in the region while largely avoiding a conventional response from the international community.  This is because China has mastered the art of employing gray zone operations which skirt the boundaries of kinetic actions.

The Houthis are a shia muslim Extremist Organization  originating from Northern Yemen.  They have been involved in multiple conflicts within Yemen for several decades.  The Houthi movement began in the 1990s as a revivalist movement aimed at protecting Zaidi religious and cultural identities.  The Houthis advocate for greater autonomy for Yemen's Zaidi-populated regions and oppose what they see as foreign interference in Yemen's affairs.  They have positioned themselves against Israel, the US and Western democracies in general and more recently Saudi Arabia.