Briefing Archive

When Chinese President Xi Jinping met privately in Beijing on July 18 with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, he floated the idea of three-way talks in which the Chinese government would attempt to mediate between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. At a time when it seems the United States under President Donald Trump is disengaging from global leadership, Xi’s proposal hints at the possibility of reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East. Can China actually supplant the U.S. as the primary external diplomatic force in the region? It is a question that loomed over Xi’s posturing even […]

Late last month, the Trump administration approved its first package of arms sales to Taiwan. For Taipei, this welcome news was long overdue, but not nearly enough to stop its slide toward international isolation. Taiwan recently lost Panama, one of its few remaining diplomatic allies, to China, when the Panamanian government severed its diplomatic ties to Taipei and officially recognized Beijing instead. The tiny African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe made the same decision in late December. Other countries are likely to follow Panama, as China continues to woo Taiwan’s remaining friends with economic incentives. China still views […]

Relations between the United States and Turkey are continuing down a turbulent path. In the most recent incident, on July 18, Turkey’s state news agency, Anadolu, published in both Turkish and English sensitive information about the U.S. military footprint in northern Syria. Anadolu’s report included the troop levels and precise locations of 10 American military bases stretching across the Kurdish-controlled regions of Syria. Although the news agency claims the information was discovered through regular reporting by its journalists in Syria, Washington clearly believes the Turkish government was behind the leak. “We would be very concerned if officials from a NATO […]

In May 2016, five months after voters approved changes to Rwanda’s constitution that would allow him to spend up to 17 more years in office, President Paul Kagame sat down for a telling conversation with two of his most high-profile foreign admirers: former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and American philanthropist Howard Buffett. The venue, the 2016 World Economic Forum for Africa, held in Rwanda’s tidy capital, Kigali, was the sort of spectacle that the 59-year-old Kagame, who is almost certain to win re-election next week, relishes. Over three days of discussions and panels, African and global business elites frequently […]

Latin American countries have consistently ratified international conventions to protect women. They are falling behind in implementation, though, despite some of the worst rates of gender-based violence and femicide in the world. Why aren't these agreements being translated into policies? Protecting women against gender-based violence is too often overlooked as a global human rights issue. On the surface, Latin America may look like an exception. All of the region’s countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and 14 have ratified the convention’s optional protocol that permits a special U.N. committee […]

Since assuming office in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a range of new economic programs in an attempt to boost India’s prosperity and deliver on an electoral promise to reignite economic growth. Yet two initiatives central to that goal have proven controversial, to say the least. The first, late last year, involved making two high-value currency notes—the 500 rupee note, equal to about $7.50, and the 1,000 rupee note, about $15—no longer legal tender, a policy known as demonetization. As a result of this sweeping move, close to 86 percent of all the circulating currency in India […]

Last month, Colombia’s Congress rejected a referendum that would have prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children. The measure had previously passed the Senate but was defeated during its first debate in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives. LGBT activists hailed the vote as a remarkable affirmation of the rights of same-sex couples in Colombia, where legal victories for same-sex marriage, adoption rights and military service have made Colombia central to what many have called a “gay rights revolution” that has swept through Latin America over the past decade. Yet in a puzzling turn of events, the momentum in favor […]

KATHMANDU, Nepal—It’s not easy to be elected as Nepal’s prime minister. It’s even more difficult to remain in the post for more than a year. When Sher Bahadur Deuba—the 71-year-old president of Nepali Congress, the largest party in the parliament—took the job in May, he became the country’s 10th premier in the past 11 years. This isn’t Deuba’s first exposure to the hazards of the country’s top political position. He was also prime minister—briefly—in 2004. Back then, having sacrificed a male goat before entering the prime minister’s official residence, he was nevertheless sent to a detention center following a bloodless […]

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Two months after a coalition of extremist groups affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State swept into the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines, provoking a large-scale military siege to retake it, the militants continue to maintain control of sections of the city. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been evacuated from the charred and bombed-out city, a testament to the power of the militants to challenge an underequipped and inadequately trained Philippine military. Since the siege began, President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly trumpeted the army’s incipient victory. Now it looks likely that Duterte will deliver his State of […]

On July 9, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s long-awaited announcement finally came: The self-proclaimed Islamic State’s occupation of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was over. In its wake, the Islamic State left thousands dead, and victory in Mosul, after perhaps the worst urban warfare this century, looked more like devastation. Over a million people were displaced. While the fighting is not over, the eventual outcome—the Islamic State’s defeat in Mosul—is not in doubt. Still, much of the city is in ruins without even the most basic public services, and that’s the good news. The bad news is where things are likely […]

In his first six months in office, President Donald Trump has appeared to reorder the foundations of U.S. foreign policy, alienated many traditional U.S. allies, remade the Republican Party and generally dominated American public discourse with his wild pronouncements and seemingly endless scandals. Outside the United States, however, it is a different story. In Asia especially, Trump’s impact, though substantial, has been more marginal than in North America or Europe, where Trump has created a massive divide between Washington and the governments of major American partners like Germany and Mexico. Overall, policymakers in Washington and across Asia have come away […]

MEXICO CITY—Over two days in mid-June, more than 300 journalists gathered in Mexico City to discuss how to respond to the murder of 33 of their colleagues in the past five years. Last year, Mexico was the third-most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to the NGO Reporters Without Borders. Nine reporters were killed in unrelated incidents across the country. With no fewer than seven journalists murdered so far this year, 2017 is almost certain to surpass that figure. The reporters in Mexico City launched an initiative known as the Journalists’ Agenda to push the government to participate […]

Just moments after he was sworn in as Mongolia’s fifth democratically elected president earlier this week, Khaltmaa Battulga turned his attention to international affairs. Having just won the second-round runoff, the business tycoon-turned-president met with Russian, Chinese and Japanese delegations in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. Diplomacy is one of the most important responsibilities assigned to the Mongolian president by the country’s constitution. Managing foreign relations with Mongolia’s immediate neighbors, while also building on his predecessor’s legacy of heightened visibility beyond Northeast Asia, will be a central challenge for Battulga. Battulga succeeded Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who served two terms as president and whose […]

What a difference a few months can make in British politics. In early May, a confident Prime Minister Theresa May looked well on her way to securing a much bigger majority for her Conservative Party in the House of Commons on a platform of “strong and steady leadership” and a promise to deliver on Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party looked out of touch with the real concerns of most British people and seemed destined for electoral oblivion. So the shock result of a hung parliament after the U.K. general election on June 8 not only transformed the British political landscape, […]

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, called them “starve, surrender and slaughter” tactics. Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called them a “war crime.” Sieges have been especially brutal on civilians in Syria’s civil war, yet they remain the Syrian government’s favorite strategy for retaking territory and purging key regions of the country of its opponents. In May, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, accused Bashar al-Assad’s government of exploiting civilian suffering as a “tactic of war.” The regime’s bloody, four-year campaign to recapture the battered city of Aleppo, which ended in a four-month siege […]

European progressives are feeling cautiously optimistic. Last year, in the shadow of the United Kingdom’s shock referendum vote for Brexit and then the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, many in Europe were fearful of a so-called contagion effect. With looming elections in the Netherlands and Austria, European leaders braced for their own populist backlash against liberalism, the European Union and international free trade. Inspired by Trump and against the backdrop of a pan-European refugee crisis, populist nationalists seemed poised to reimpose themselves onto the political agenda. Once again, a major crisis loomed on the horizon […]

For millennia, the Nile River has served as the backbone of Egypt, the lifeblood of its people. Gradually, though, the land of the pharaohs is losing its grip. Late last month, Uganda hosted the first ever heads-of-state summit aimed at resolving disagreements over the waters of the Nile. But it produced no major breakthrough and appeared to be a flop. In coming months, the opening of a major dam in Ethiopia will truly test Egypt’s anxieties that countries upstream are refusing to bow to its demands. The dam’s opening will reveal just how much leverage Egypt has lost. Egypt has […]