Briefing Archive

Human rights organizations have become alarmed that, according to documents leaked to Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order suspending Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms. The rule requires companies to disclose whether their products contain the so-called 3TG conflict minerals—gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin—seen as critical drivers of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Advocates of the rule, which went into effect in 2014, contend that conflict minerals, which the U.N. has called the “engine of the conflict” in Congo, provide hundreds of millions of dollars to armed groups, which […]

The African Union has a new face, following its summit last month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Chad’s former prime minister, Moussa Faki Mahamat, is taking the reins as the new chair of the AU Commission. And for the first time, the AU’s membership now includes every nation on the African continent, following Morocco’s decision to return to the organization after withdrawing 33 years ago in protest over the status of Western Sahara. But a new look won’t change the fact that in many regards, the AU is still a broken institution. Ninety-seven percent of the organization’s programs are funded by […]

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump took intransigent stands on several prominent issues, notably immigration and trade. But he also said he was “totally flexible on very, very many issues,” leaving considerable ambiguity about where he would take the United States on a range of domestic and foreign policies. He was silent, for example, on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, for counterterrorism. He did say in November 2015 that he “would bomb the hell out of” the self-proclaimed Islamic State, but the U.S.-led coalition has done plenty of that. Since it began hitting targets in Iraq and […]

On Feb. 19, Ecuador will hold elections for a new president and members of the 137-seat National Assembly, as well as for the Andean Parliament, the legislative body of the Andean Community customs union made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Ecuadorians will also vote on a proposal to prohibit public officials from having assets in tax havens. With leftist President Rafael Correa ineligible to run for re-election as he finishes an unprecedented third term, many predict the elections will be a referendum on his so-called Citizen’s Revolution. Poverty in Ecuador has decreased 16 percent under Correa, thanks to […]

Fears of another war are growing in Bosnia and Herzegovina as xenophobia and nationalist rivalries surge in the largely autonomous and Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska. Observers are warning that a growing separatist movement in the territory threatens the terms of the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian War of the 1990s. That conflict killed more than 100,000 people and displaced some 1 million civilians through interethnic violence between Catholic Croats, Bosnian Muslims—or Bosniaks—and Orthodox Christian Serbs. Republika Srpska, the majority-Serb enclave of Bosnia and Herzegovina that was formalized by the U.S.-brokered Dayton Accords, virtually cleansed the bulk of its […]

Kenya’s most prominent opposition leader, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, will run again in his fourth presidential election this August. Another loss could cost him the confidence of his base, the Luo people, who for five decades have placed high hopes in him and his late father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, to break the ethnic monopoly on Kenya’s presidency, which has rotated between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin people. But an Odinga loss, whether by a close margin or because of perceived voting irregularities that have plagued earlier contests, could ignite the kind of ethnic violence seen after the 2007 election and […]

The ongoing uncertainty over Brexit has raised many questions in Europe, starting with when negotiations between the European Union and the U.K. will even begin. But beyond the specifics of the negotiations, there is uncertainty over what Brexit will mean for European defense policy, a topic that has become all the more important now that U.S. President Donald Trump, who has questioned the United States’ commitment to NATO, is in office. In the wake of Brexit, officials in Brussels have called for stronger defense integration across the bloc, floated renewed plans for a permanent EU military headquarters, and proposed more […]

The Trump administration has signaled that it is likely to scale back traditional U.S. development assistance programs in sub-Saharan Africa and favor more commercial engagement with the continent. That shift was evident in a four-page list of questions distributed to the State Department last month before Donald Trump’s inauguration. The questions relayed skepticism from the Trump transition team about some U.S. aid programs and security policies in Africa, while asking, for example, “How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese?” Paradoxically, such a shift could be healthy for America’s relationship with […]

After a spate of kidnappings and renewed clashes with the Philippines’ armed forces over the past year, the Islamist militants of Abu Sayyaf have forged a reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s most radical and brutal jihadi groups. The high-profile beheadings in 2016 of two Canadian hostages has focused global attention on the remote, impoverished and underdeveloped region of the southern Philippines where Abu Sayyaf operates. The violence has heightened the sense of urgency to find a solution to the long-running insurgency and placed an intense spotlight on President Rodrigo Duterte’s strategy. So far, Duterte’s comments on Abu Sayyaf have, […]

Last month, Guyana seemingly overnight joined the ranks of oil-rich countries when Exxon Mobil and Hess announced one of the most significant oil discoveries in years in the waters off the tiny South American nation. One offshore field is estimated to hold 1.4 billion barrels of oil alone, as much as South America’s largest existing fields. A relatively poor developing country, Guyana currently has no domestic crude oil production, although being Venezuela’s neighbor has warranted intermittent exploration for nearly a century. That is about to change, with oil revenues expected by 2020. But this good news comes with a warning. […]

The massacre at a Quebec City mosque on Sunday has taken a backseat to a news cycle dominated on the other side of the border by the turbulent start of Donald Trump’s presidency. The shooting, which killed six worshippers and injured 19 more, followed the implementation of Trump’s executive order to bar individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. In response to Trump’s travel ban, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to social media on Saturday to declare that Canada’s arms were open to any rejected refugees unable to enter the United States. The following evening, 27-year-old Alexandre […]