After an already dramatic week, West Africa’s governance crisis reached a fever pitch earlier today amid conflicting reports from Burkina Faso that raised fears of yet another military coup attempt in the region. It is now difficult to see a scenario that would bring an improvement in West Africa’s security and political landscape.
Speculation is heating up in Brussels over this week’s attack on the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. Many in the West suspect Russia to be behind the sabotage of the pipelines, but Moscow has denied any involvement, pointing the finger at the U.S. or Ukraine instead.
A massacre committed on Sept. 16 by Myanmar’s military, in which 11 children died, is consistent with the junta’s strategy to regain control of the country. The regime’s scorched-earth campaign is focusing on areas dominated by rebel units and those loyal to the opposition government in exile, the National Unity Government.
Alarm over a potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine has reawakened debate in the U.S. between those who favor continued military assistance to Kyiv and those who argue for seeking to end the war to head off the risks of escalation. At the root of the debate is a fundamental question: What’s at stake for the U.S. in Ukraine?
The sudden regime failures of the Shah of Iran and the USSR should be kept in mind when examining the self-inflicted disasters that Moscow and Tehran are currently struggling with. The West should remain cautious before making firm predictions that either will collapse, but prepare for a range of outcomes if they do.
The EU’s militarized security engagement in Africa is not new. What is new, however, is the institutional mechanisms by which the EU is providing security support to partner states in Africa. Often ignored is the question of whether increased EU support for militarized approaches actually increases security for Africans.
For anyone wondering how Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond to the Ukrainian military’s recent gains, this week offered a clarifying and horrifying answer. In a speech Wednesday, Putin announced a partial mobilization of Russia’s military reserves in an effort to shore up the Russian army’s collapsing front lines.
October will mark the one-year anniversary of the Sudanese military takeover from a transitional government created in 2019 after the overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. But nearly 12 months later, the country faces a stalemated transition, economic malaise and political paralysis that could cause state failure.
Once again, the fate of the Iran nuclear agreement is in limbo. While in theory a deal is still possible, in practice, the longer the negotiations to revive it drag out, the more difficult it will be for both sides to compromise. With that in mind, it’s worth revisiting the question of what a no-deal future might look like.
It is tempting to think that the liberal international order might have stood a better chance absent Russian revanchism and Chinese ambition. But to do so ignores the degree to which the globalization narrative disregarded globalization’s real impact on local communities. If the war in Ukraine represents a meaningful change, it is about reasserting the centrality of the state in globalization’s violent practices.
One of the most important exercises in any war is also one of the most difficult: assessing its progress. The war in Ukraine is no exception, but with the lightning gains of Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive having slowed somewhat, it seems like a good time to make a cautious attempt to take stock of where things stand.
A renewed round of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan marks an alarming escalation of tensions between the historical enemies since the end of their war in November 2020. The attack is closely related to recent shifts in the regional balance of power, which even before 2020 had already become lopsided in Baku’s favor.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, observers have been keeping a close eye on how much support China might lend its isolated partner. Though China has offered a much-needed diplomatic lifeline to Vladimir Putin in the face of Western efforts to make him a global pariah, Xi Jinping’s patience now seems to have worn thin.
The war in Ukraine took a dramatic turn last weekend when the Ukrainian military launched a massive counteroffensive, crystallizing what has been a gradual transformation of the war into a multilateral conflict between Russia and a Western coalition that has supplied arms, training and intelligence to Ukraine.
In August, the U.S. military announced a plan to reduce civilian casualties, embedding it as a concern at every level of preparation and operations. But the U.S. has always professed to take civilian casualties seriously, which raises the question of why it is now issuing a formal plan to do so and what changes might result from it.
The welcome Queen Elizabeth found on the island of Ireland in the final years of her life and the sympathy expressed there after her death should give London food for thought. Confrontation over Brexit’s implications for Northern Ireland risks undermining decades of work to build better relations between Britain and Ireland.
Last week’s change of government in the U.K., followed by the death of Queen Elizabeth II, put the spotlight on the country’s global role. Many regions got their share of news coverage in the memorials of Elizabeth’s life, but not the Middle East, reflecting its low importance on the list of London’s priorities.