Briefing Archive

Next week, China will host 20 heads of state at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Beijing, the biggest international event held in China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012. In addition to advancing some of APEC’s standard agenda items from previous years, China is expected to use the summit as a platform to push for several regional integration initiatives of its own. While these proposals do have economic benefits for other Asian nations, their progress may be undermined by differences among APEC members, principally the United States and China, over how to promote trade […]

Almost a month after its general elections, with negotiations intensifying over potential ruling coalitions, Bosnia is confronted with two possible scenarios. If the political will for compromise prevails, the election results could enable the relatively swift establishment of stable governments at both the national and local levels. But if Bosnia’s irresponsible, hard-line and self-serving “politics as usual” lead to new deadlocks and delays in forming governments at the different administrative levels, it could further damage Bosnia’s already weak economic and social base and stoke new ethnic and social tensions. Which scenario emerges in the coming weeks and months will also […]

Since May 2009, Jacob Zuma’s leadership of South Africa has played out against a backdrop of corruption scandals and other damaging revelations that have drained the lifeblood from his presidency. Crisis management has effectively become Zuma’s modus operandi, with short-term political survival eclipsing the need to provide South Africa with stable and effective governance. Zuma’s re-election last May, following the decisive, if qualified, victory of the African National Congress (ANC) in national elections, did not provide the hoped-for new beginning. That has the ANC hierarchy scrambling. Zuma contaminates contemporary South African politics so much that it is difficult to envisage […]

Tensions between Iran and Pakistan rose last month after Sunni militant insurgents that Iran claims are based in Pakistan conducted a series of attacks on Iranian government installations and personnel in the restive, impoverished border province of Sistan-Baluchistan. In response, Tehran threatened cross-border raids in Pakistan if Islamabad failed to act against militants targeting Iran, and then followed through, killing one Pakistani paramilitary officer on Oct. 17. Flare-ups along the Iran-Pakistan border, which spans the ethnic area of Baluchistan, are not new, and when they happen, both Tehran and Islamabad often work quickly to de-escalate. And so Iranian and Pakistani […]

On Oct. 30, after several massive demonstrations against efforts by supporters of long-serving President Blaise Compaore to remove presidential term limits, protesters in Burkina Faso set fire to the country’s parliament to prevent a vote from taking place on the issue. The next day, Compaore resigned. After what appeared to be a power struggle within the military, Lt. Col. Isaac Zida emerged as the head of a transitional government, which faces continued pressure from protesters and opposition leaders to hand over power to civilians. The situation remains fluid. The protests that swept Campaore from power drew on longstanding grievances and […]

On Saturday, the European Union’s border agency Frontex launched a border control mission in the Mediterranean Sea known as Triton. The operation comes days after Italy ended its search-and-rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, which rescued over 150,000 migrants over the past year. Italy will still maintain a Mediterranean presence during a two-month transition period, but Mare Nostrum’s $12 million monthly price tag, together with pressure from other EU member states that claim the mission gave migrants easy entrance into Europe, have caused Italy to end the operation. As I wrote earlier this year, Italy has borne the brunt of European migration. […]