Since 2017, Cameroon has been engulfed in a bloody civil war, forcing more than 1 million people to flee their homes. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have repeatedly failed. Now divisions among the armed separatist movement fighting the government risk escalating the conflict, raising further obstacles to reaching peace.
Two of today’s biggest stories in the Western Hemisphere are eliciting starkly different responses: action on migration and inaction on Venezuela’s political and economic crises. Yet, with over 7 million Venezuelans having fled the country, it’s impossible to deal with the first challenge without taking the second more seriously.
For the past 20 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shaped Turkey’s domestic politics and foreign policy. But in Sunday’s presidential election, he faces his greatest electoral challenge yet. The opposition is united, and Turkey’s economy is flagging. Perhaps most importantly, Erdogan has lost his aura of invincibility.
Paraguay’s recent elections seemed to deliver a clean sweep to the long-dominant Colorado Party and its presidential candidate, Santiago Pena. Yet the apparent scale of the Colorado victory is deceptive. Pena is unlikely to enjoy a political honeymoon, nor have things entirely his way in terms of policymaking.
Liberia is scheduled to hold its next general election in October, a vote that will determine the country’s next president and its national lawmakers. Amid domestic challenges, as well as a growing fear of democratic backsliding in the region, the upcoming polls could have major domestic and regional ramifications.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the country’s 2019 elections promising to stabilize Greece’s economy and enact a law-and-order security agenda. In his own way, Mitsotakis has delivered on those promises. Nevertheless, he and his ruling party face an uphill battle to hold onto power in the upcoming snap elections.
Chileans have once again dealt President Gabriel Boric a major setback, handing an overwhelming victory to the right-wing opposition in a vote for a new Constitutional Council. The outcome all but ensures that Chile’s next constitution will fail to bring about the progressive changes Boric and his supporters had envisioned.
A growing number of jurisdictions worldwide have recently moved toward some form of cannabis regulation. Moving away from prohibition makes sense, but cannabis legalization has not been without its challenges. One trend in particular gets little attention: the complicity of legal cannabis corporations in the illicit cannabis trade.
The Russia-Ukraine war has had major global implications. Some disruptions appear relatively straightforward to solve, but the realm of information security does not lend itself to quick fixes. Central and Eastern Europe provides several hard-learned lessons in how Russian disinformation is used and how it might be countered.
The commanders of armed groups in African countries are often portrayed as erratic tyrants with little understanding of the world—in both Hollywood films and in news coverage. Yet as clashes in Sudan escalate into civil war, it is becoming increasingly clear that the geopolitical sophistication of such warlords has been underestimated.
Though the Iran-Saudi Arabia normalization deal was mediated by China, Baghdad played an important role in pushing it across the finish line. That diplomatic initiative reflects Iraq’s broader efforts toward regional reintegration, which has been a key priority, not least because regional animosities often play out inside Iraq.
This week, Title 42—the pandemic-era measure curtailing immigration across the U.S. southern border—is expiring. But a new rash of efforts to regulate the flow of asylum-seekers compromises U.S. obligations under both domestic and international law, potentially putting U.S. civil servants implementing these policies at legal risk.
Three visits to Nairobi this week by major dignitaries is the latest indication of a recognition by global actors of Africa’s increasing importance in international affairs—and Kenya’s aspiration to be a major voice for Africa in global affairs. But Nairobi must now demonstrate its readiness to assume such a responsibility.
It’s hard to imagine that Paraguay’s elections would have repercussions for China, or that Taiwan’s status would be of interest to Paraguayan voters. But that is exactly what just occurred Sunday, when one of the top issues in Paraguay’s elections was whether or not to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan and establish them with China.
China’s delivery economy has exploded since the pandemic. With more and more purchases just a fingertip away, the convenience of the delivery apps has enticed shoppers and drivers alike. But with the change in shopping habits, the tough conditions faced by the gig workers that keep the system running have become more prominent.
Zimbabwe is expected to hold its second general election this year since a military coup ousted dictator Robert Mugabe in 2017. But while Mugabe’s ouster gave way to cautious optimism about a new dawn in the country’s post-independence affairs, the hope for a more peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe has all but evaporated.
On March 21, nine Algerian migrants died when the boat taking them to Italy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. The tragedy highlights the cost of migration, which is not limited to lives lost. The highly publicized reports of migrant deaths have increasingly shaped a vision of migration as a symptom of a broader social tragedy.