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Last month, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull traveled to Japan for what has become an annual summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, highlighting the sustained growth of strategic relations between Tokyo and Canberra. During the visit, both sides agreed on the importance of working together in the Indo-Pacific and combining their shared interests in the rule of law and the freedom of navigation—a signal toward China, with its increasingly aggressive claims in the South China Sea, and the United States, at a time when the Trump administration has raised unfamiliar questions about America’s position in Asia. In a joint […]

No issue is more important for U.S. national security than America’s relationship with an increasingly powerful and assertive China. But it is also true that no issue is more complex. Two weeks ago, Secretary of Defense James Mattis released an unclassified summary of his new National Defense Strategy. Known among national security professionals as the NDS, the document outlined a major shift in U.S. security doctrine. Before Sept. 11, America’s main security concern was what were called “rogue” states. After the terrorist attacks on the United States, transnational terrorism inspired by Islamist extremism moved to the fore. Then, during the […]

In the middle of the night on June 29, 2014, the Mexican army massacred 22 civilians in a grain warehouse in the small town of Tlatlaya in central Mexico. The government claimed the soldiers had been attacked by members of a drug cartel and had opened fire to protect themselves. But witnesses and journalists told a different story. There was little evidence of a prolonged shootout, and Clara Gomez, whose 15-year old daughter was one of the victims, testified in court that she and other survivors had been tortured into backing the government’s version of events. A year later, the […]

It’s been a busy few weeks for Cote d’Ivoire’s courts. A spate of recent trials targeting high-profile members from the previous government, including former President Laurent Gbagbo himself, has redirected attention to the strikingly unbalanced pursuit of justice that has followed the West African country’s post-election conflict seven years ago. Even as the political class shifts its focus to the 2020 presidential election, the wheels of the judiciary keep turning, at least when it comes to trying those who were on the losing side of the fighting. Among the latest notable decisions was a verdict issued in December against Hubert […]

In late December, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had a tense meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, during a visit to Moscow—the first by a British foreign secretary in five years. Johnson and Lavrov clashed over allegations of Russian meddling in European elections and the U.K.’s Brexit referendum. Lavrov admitted it was “not a secret” that the relationship between Russia and the U.K. was at a “very low point.” In an email interview, Duncan Allan, an associate fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House in London, discusses the nature of the tensions, their economic impact and […]

As Egypt’s presidential election draws closer, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has resolutely quashed any hope that it will allow even a hint of democratic legitimacy. Registration for the March election closed this week after authorities made sure every credible candidate was pushed out of the contest, either through arrest or intimidation. A token contender, whose party had already endorsed Sisi, was added at the last minute to avoid the embarrassment of a one-man race. The spectacle has been thoroughly demoralizing not only for the opposition, but also for many of the Egyptians who welcomed Sisi nearly half a […]