Last week, Spain’s right-wing parties failed in their bid to form a government following the country’s inconclusive elections in July. All eyes are now on acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to see how far he is willing to go to secure the support of regional parties he’ll need to win another term that once seemed all but impossible.
The effusive rhetoric on display in recent high-level meetings between Russian and Chinese officials masks a significant vulnerability in their strategic partnership: Although both sides champion the creation of a multipolar world order, their actual cooperation on the ground lags far behind, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.
A civil-military relations crisis in the U.S. is actually the latest in a recent series of similar crises affecting the world’s major powers, including Russia and China. That raises the question: Is this simply a random series of unconnected events that all just happen to center around defense ministers? Or is there a deeper cause?
