Briefing Archive

Earlier this week, Pentagon officials confirmed that Abdul Hasib Logari, the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, had been killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan operation in eastern Afghanistan on April 27. That operation, in which two U.S. Army Rangers were also killed, followed an airstrike by U.S. forces in Afghanistan that dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or “MOAB,” on an Islamic State tunnel complex. The bomb is one of the largest conventional weapons in the U.S. arsenal and represented a dramatic escalation of American operations against the Islamic State affiliate, known as the Khorasan Province. […]

While most of the Middle East is imploding from civil wars, terrorism, despotism and sectarianism, Iran will hold its 12th presidential election next week, on May 19. Despite the absence of palpable public enthusiasm, the election will have a profound impact on the fate of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and seven global powers; on Iran’s relations with the United States; and on the ailing Iranian economy. Looming large on the horizon, too, is the sensitive issue of who could succeed the 78-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose health is rumored to be poor, since the president […]

As the Iraqi army comes closer to fully reconquering Mosul from the self-proclaimed Islamic State, questions are emerging about the future of relations between two of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Iran. Will the quest for influence in Iraq’s Sunni heartland lead to greater turbulence between Ankara and Tehran? Are they, as some warn, on an unavoidable collision course in Iraq? Turkey is worried that gains made by Iraq’s Shiite-majority government, which is friendly with Iran, only serve to expand Tehran’s influence over Sunni areas in northern Iraq. More worrying for Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan is the potential for a […]

On April 30, Matteo Renzi showed that rumors of his political demise were greatly exaggerated. Italy’s former prime minister found his career on the rocks following a humiliation in December, when the constitutional referendum he backed was defeated. But he proved that he could still command the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of supporters of the Democratic Party, or PD, by winning a convincing victory in the party leadership primaries. Nearly 2 million people voted—less than in previous contests, but still an impressive figure, especially since the vote coincided with a holiday weekend. Almost 70 percent cast a ballot for […]

Wednesday’s vicious presidential debate ahead of Sunday’s election in France did little to improve the public image of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. In a flurry of factually dubious assertions about her centrist opponent, Emmanuel Macron, she struggled to offer a clear political platform, instead railing against free trade and demonizing Muslims. Her dismal performance, coupled with endorsements for Macron from across France’s political spectrum, is likely to seal her defeat come Sunday. But Le Pen and her movement will remain relevant for French politics. The first round of the election sidelined France’s mainstream parties from the presidential runoff in […]

After spending the past few months skeptical of reviving the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from in January just after he took office, Japan has changed tack and is now looking to press ahead on finalizing the major Pacific Rim trade deal with the 10 other signatory states. The about-face on the TPP by Japan, which is the largest remaining economy in the deal, came ahead of a critical meeting this week of the signatories, known as the TPP-11, looking for a path forward without the United States. The meeting, held in Toronto, was […]

Having survived the grueling U.S. presidential campaign largely unscathed by any vitriol from Donald Trump, India was cautiously optimistic that bilateral relations under a Trump administration would advance without distraction or controversy. Positive initial phone calls between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, free of the dust-ups of some of Trump’s other engagements with world leaders, raised expectations further. A little more than 100 days in, the Trump administration has yet to clarify or finalize any changes in U.S. policy toward India or name a new ambassador to New Delhi. But Trump may have already dashed India’s hopes with […]

On Barack Obama’s first day in office as U.S. president in 2009, he called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to discuss the war being waged at the time in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. The call came just two years after a devastating Palestinian civil war in which Hamas—the Islamist group that the United States, Israel and the European Union all designate as a terrorist organization—had expelled Abbas’ Fatah-led Palestinian Authority from Gaza. Back in 2009, in the midst of what the Israelis called Operation Cast Lead, Hamas was surging in popularity among Palestinians. For many in […]

ASUNCION, Paraguay—A month after rioters set fire to Paraguay’s Congress, President Horacio Cartes has abandoned his contentious plans to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term in 2018. But a corrupt party system and factionalism among Paraguay’s elites pose a greater threat to representative government in one of the poorest countries in South America. On April 26, the lower house of Paraguay’s legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, rejected a bill to amend the country’s constitution to allow former and current presidents to run again. Nine days earlier, Cartes, a tobacco magnate who is one of […]

The political opposition in Zimbabwe to President Robert Mugabe is about to test the old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. On April 19, two opposition leaders—former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and former Vice President Joice Mujuru—announced that they would seek to create a coalition in an effort to deny Mugabe another five-year term in 2018. But will it succeed where successive efforts have failed? In theory, defeating Mugabe should not be terribly difficult. He has led Zimbabwe as president or prime minister since 1980. Under his watch, the country has gone from being one of […]