The SDG summit in September and several others in the years ahead offer the U.N. a chance to construct a plan of action for the future—and position itself at the core of both. But without a change in how the U.N. approaches the problems it must address, the summits could end up being another missed opportunity.
On Feb. 10, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega freed 222 political prisoners, but also stripped them of their citizenship. His exiling of his political opponents was not a signal of potential change but rather a show of force, and is part of a successful strategy of repression that has prevented Ortega’s opposition from organizing.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was framed as a reaffirmation of the two countries’ recently battered democracies. But if Lula seems like a good fit for Biden’s narrative of a global battle between democracy and autocracy, he also underscores the limitations of this narrative.
This weekend’s African Union leaders’ summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will be Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari final one ahead of his departure from office in May. Haunting Buhari’s final AU summit, and his last months in office, is a grim reality: Nigeria’s continued decline as a continental power.
For the past month, France has been in the grip of protests against pension reforms proposed by the government of President Emmanuel Macron, with close to a million people demonstrating across the country on Feb. 11. The protests have so far been entirely orderly. But with the government sticking to its guns, tension is mounting.
Amid competition and trade tensions, U.S.-China relations are at a low point. The path forward is treacherous, and how Washington chooses to navigate it will shape not only current events, but possibly the century ahead. The U.S. has three options for how it approaches Beijing going forward: It can oppose China, embrace it or ignore it.
The European Union got a welcome bit of good news this week with a surprise revision to the European Commission’s economic outlook, which now predicts the union will narrowly avoid a recession and has already passed peak inflation. The forecast, though, stands in stark contrast to recent predictions for the United Kingdom.
As Vladimir Putin cracked down on dissent following the invasion of Ukraine, Russians opposed to the war started leaving the country in large numbers. The departure of hundreds of thousands of people as the direct result of the war will have a powerful impact on the country in two distinct ways: It will help Putin and hurt Russia.
Thirty years after the atrocities committed under former dictator Alfredo Stroessner were revealed, Paraguayans are still seeking justice. The current government, headed by Stroessner’s own Colorado party, appears more interested in forgetting the past than pursuing accountability, lest the party fall into broader disrepute.
The importance of civil defense capabilities, so often neglected during quieter times, has become starkly visible in Turkey and Syria in the past two weeks. When confronted with war or natural disasters, a society can only protect survivors if it has the state capacity to organize an effective civil defense effort.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos recently announced that Manila will implement a defense agreement signed with the U.S. in 2014 and grant U.S. forces access to additional military bases. After six years of acrimonious relations, the Philippines is poised once again to play a pivotal role in Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
Two earthquakes on Feb. 6 have so far killed more than 35,000 and injured tens of thousands more in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria. But while the disasters were natural, not all of the fallout was: The humanitarian catastrophe caused by the earthquakes has been worsened by corruption, politics and geopolitical rivalries.
Over recent months, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and an end to the legal targeting of opposition figures. But with Hasina unlikely to concede ahead of scheduled elections, the coming year looks set to be a contentious one.
Hunger in the U.S. is spiking again, because many pandemic-era policies that expanded access to food are expiring just as prices are rising. This provides both a challenge and an opportunity for advocates working to end hunger to reframe food as a public good rather than a form of charity and a human right rather than a commodity.
Acute water stress around the world has galvanized efforts to find new approaches and innovative solutions to access and maintain increasingly scarce water supplies. But critical questions about such trade, particularly with regard to the application of international trade law to untreated water, remain unresolved.
Bollywood has long played a significant nation-building role in India. But over the past decade, both onscreen and off, it has increasingly fed into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s particular brand of nation-building, by both reinforcing anti-Muslim sentiment and engaging in Hindu-nationalist revisionist history.
To become Malaysia’s prime minister after last year’s general elections, Anwar Ibrahim was forced to form a government with the scandal-tainted UMNO party. Though perplexing given Anwar’s reformist agenda, the coalition was considered the least bad option. But looking ahead, he might not be able to take UMNO’s support for granted.