The recent coup in Niger presents the United States with a familiar dilemma in how it conducts security assistance. There is no easy solution, but current dynamics in the Sahel, which indicate that without outside help al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups will rapidly gain strength in the region, call for U.S. policymakers to pursue a pragmatic course.
The end of the war in Tigray in November 2022 brought relative peace to the region and eased international pressure on Addis Ababa. Yet, it has precipitated the explosion of another devastating war, this time between Ethiopian government forces and their erstwhile partners in the Tigray war from the country’s Amhara region.
Against the backdrop of the Maui wildfires, U.S. President Joe Biden is facing renewed calls to declare a climate emergency but has been hedging on whether to do so for political reasons. But Biden is overlooking an untapped source of political capital that would ease the declaration of a climate emergency: the U.S. military.
When Myanmar’s ruling military announced last week that it was issuing a partial pardon for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, it seemed a sign that the regime might be preparing to loosen its grip and perhaps even compromise with the opposition. That optimistic interpretation, however, is being rejected by many Myanmar observers.
In the past two weeks, the coup in Niger has snowballed into a confrontation pitting the civilian-led states of ECOWAS against military juntas in West Africa. But the standoff is a symptom of broader dysfunctions in the global system that underscore the need for the EU and its members to reassess their approaches to foreign policy.
Since the launch of the “great power competition” framework, U.S. policymakers seem to have moved on entirely from the war on terror, focusing instead on countering China and Russia. But as the U.S. military’s significant presence in Niger demonstrates, it would be a mistake to consider the war on terror as solely in the past.
A congressional hearings last Wednesday suggested the U.S. government possesses extraterrestrial UFOs. Skepticism seems warranted. But if, for the sake of argument, it is eventually confirmed that intelligent, extraterrestrial life forms have visited Earth and continue to do, it would have profound impacts on international politics.
The coup in Niger caught much of the outside world by surprise, given the country’s image as a relatively stable outlier in a region beset by upheaval. But if foreign observers were stunned by President Mohamed Bazoum’s ouster, it did not come as a shock to many Nigeriens, and not solely because of Niger’s history of military coups.
U.S. President Joe Biden recently stirred controversy by stating that al-Qaida no longer has a presence in Afghanistan—thanks, he suggested, to the Taliban. The Taliban predictably applauded his statement, but others pointed out that it contradicted recent U.N. reports. How are we to make sense of these conflicting characterizations?
If there has been a significant difference between the coup in Niger and others across the region in recent years, it has been in ECOWAS’ response to it. That highlights a nascent transition between waning Western power structures in the region and efforts to construct a new system of collective security there.
Ukraine’s wartime travel restrictions trapping most of its male population inside the country have had dire impacts on the civilian population. Although it’s easy to view the travel ban’s biggest victims as civilian men, a new report shows that it is actually Ukrainian women who are particularly keen to modify or lift it.