Recent weeks have been an exercise in bandwidth and attention management for Latin America. The region, via multilateral forums and organizations, has responded strongly to Venezuela’s threat to invade Guyana and Guatemala’s political crisis. That action is good to see, but those aren’t the only two challenges the hemisphere faces.
One year after U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, great power competition is still driving Washington’s Africa policy. So while the summit did produce some positive outcomes, engagement with civil society remains limited and human rights protection continues to be placed on the back burner.
While Hungary is set to continue to play a spoiler role in Brussels, it’s unlikely Orban will delay Ukraine aid for long.
With the war in Gaza having intensified following the end of the recent U.S.-supported pause in fighting, it has become clear that this conflict is upending U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans for the Middle East: The war has dealt a body blow to Arab-Israeli normalization, while accelerating Iran’s regional integration.
Madagascar could be hovering on the brink of another political crisis after President Andry Rajoelina was declared the winner of a sham election. Amid democratic backsliding and continued French support, Rajoelina will begin his third term with popular discontent and disillusionment with the ruling elite at an all-time high.
What do the war efforts of Israel and Ukraine have in common? Each is dependent on assistance from the U.S., and each sees itself engaged in an existential fight. But what is most notable is that both are engaged in war efforts that, despite imposing heavy casualties on their opponents, are in danger of strategic defeat.
The record debt levels in low- and middle-income countries is a looming crisis, but one that remains largely invisible to the Global North.
Tensions have been rising along Russia’s borders with several countries belonging to the EU and NATO. Most recently, Finland, one of NATO’s newest members, blasted the Kremlin, accusing Russia of launching a form of “hybrid warfare” by sending a surge of migrants to the Finnish border in an effort to destabilize the country.
Financing is a critical component in the response to various development goals across the Global South, but it is also urgent to scrutinize how solutions are implemented. In particular, the exclusion of local actors affects the effectiveness of international assistance and can even lead to foreign aid doing more harm than good.
The COP28 deal among almost 200 countries to “transition away” from fossil fuels is both significantly flawed and cause for reassurance.
British media and policymakers paid only brief attention to a bombing in a South London suburb last week that in other contexts might have generated national panic. This remarkable lack of fuss was partly due to what the bomb had targeted: cameras enforcing an air-quality and climate initiative to discourage the use of older cars.
On Oct. 31, the Biden administration restored Mauritania’s trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, despite Mauritania not having fully eradicated forced labor and slavery. A closer look at several other aspects of U.S.-Mauritania relations may shed light on the Biden administration’s decision.
Tusk has pledged to maintain Warsaw’s support for Kyiv, while also being more aligned with the EU on climate and immigration policy.
Although the scale of the unrest that engulfed the streets of Dublin last month took both the authorities and the general public by surprise, it probably shouldn’t have. It is just the latest and most extreme in a series of incidents in Ireland over the past six months fueled by the far right and rising anti-immigrant sentiment.
The EU and China concluded their first in-person leaders’ summit since 2019 this week, with trade imbalances and China’s continued support for Russia front and center. While the latter has fundamentally shifted Europe’s view of China, the economic issues dominated discussions at the summit, particularly with regard to electric vehicles.
The EU has gotten a head start on responding to the debate over AI safety, becoming the first major market to substantively regulate AI.
Israel’s previous wars in the past few decades have had limited economic fallout, in part due to their brevity. But its current conflict against Hamas in Gaza promises to be a more protracted campaign, one that will affect a more significant swathe of the Israeli population and disrupt supply chains to a much greater degree.