Will former U.S. President Donald Trump maintain his “dealmaker” approach towards Egypt in case he finds his way back to the White House?
Tag: geopolitics
What are the links between Iran and the two powers challenging the Western order, Russia and China? And how do their relations affect the international climate? This is a key question at a time when the logic of war is at work in several regions of the world.
By helping to intercept Iran’s counter attack against Israel, the U.S. and Western allies, along with Jordan, have deprived Benjamin Netanyahu of a pretext to expand the war and to divert attention from his actions in Gaza.
A telephone call between French and Russian defense ministers on Wednesday gave rise to Russian accusations and threats against France. The terrorist risk shared by the two countries did not allow the slightest progress to be made: this is worrying just a few months before the Paris Olympic Games.
The American billionaire and founder of Tesla and SpaceX is increasingly openly supporting the ideas of the radical right and Donald Trump. Long gone are the days when Silicon Valley voted Democrat: Elon Musk is the embodiment of this openly self-assured “tech right”.
Recent changes in Syria’s security apparatus are yet another step in President Bashar al-Assad’s years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, more than two decades after his death.
The French President has lost all hope in reasoning with Putin, hardening his tone toward Moscow after trying to position himself at the outset as a mediating force.
Latin American governments have barely denounced the Russian attack on Ukraine, partly for lingering distrust of the United States. But there is also a regional misperception of Russia as a new Soviet Union and friend of “lesser nations” struggling for betterment.
Ukrainian drones that struck nine Russian provinces on Tuesday while armed Russian dissident soldiers launched a ground attack against Moscow’s troops in the Bolgorod region, bordering Ukraine. It’s a reminder to the Russian people that the war is on them, and won’t be ending anytime soon.
China has recently been discreet over major crises, such as Ukraine and Gaza, focusing its attention and energy on its domestic difficulties, particularly economic ones. Convinced that his country is entering a stormy period, President Xi Jinping is strengthening his hold over the nation, but may
French President Emmanuel Macron crossed a line, at least rhetorically, in saying that the West doesn’t exclude sending troops to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia. Yet it may be time for the Western alliance to acknowledge that they’ve actually entered direct conflict with Moscow long before.
Donald Trump is not creating the U.S. malaise any more than Putin is creating the Russian malaise or Netanyahu the Israeli identity crisis. But all three illustrate the inescapable risk if a “me-first” attitude is taken to an extreme degree by individuals who’ve accumulated power.
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto is expected to win Indonesia’s presidential election, on Feb. 14. Yet concerns about democracy are on the rise, as the nation carefully balances ties with Beijing and Washington.
With a sham court ruling, Venezuela’s President Maduro has paved the way for his unchallenged reelection as president this year, regardless of U.S. sanctions. This is happening as Latin America’s leftist governments, notably Brazil, watch in silence.
Bolivia believes lithium is the new “white gold,” for its role in fueling new technologies. Distrusting Western investments and technology, it’s counting on collaborations with Russia and China. But there will be problems at home that could block it all.
With U.S. elections slated for November, support to Ukraine is becoming a divisive electoral issue. Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate over Ukraine aid will be telling, but it won’t end there.
Organizing summits, placing flags, following schedules, dealing with the unexpected … The agents of France’s Quai d’Orsay who oversee the reception of foreign leaders and promote the country’s image don’t have an easy job.
The leaders of key EU countries have been on the phone with Vladimir Putin since the war in Ukraine began. Weighing the costs, benefits…and morals…of leaving the door open to a man who brutally invaded a sovereign nation — and taking Munich 1938 as a starting point.
There is major maneuvering among the small but strategic islands in the South Pacific, with China offering security cooperation, and the United States reopening embassies and reviving dormant cooperation.
After 100 days of war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that he has no plans to listen to what any other country has to say, including his closest allies. There’s every reason to expect the situation to get worse.
By electing William Lai, the Taiwanese people have reaffirmed their desire for sovereignty and independence from China in the face of Chinese threats. And meanwhile, Donald Trump’s comeback could reshuffle the cards again.
It’s the first big election of 2024, and it may well prove one of the most contested — and significant ones. As these vote on Saturday, Taiwanese citizens will be picking the fate of their identity and democracy.
Donald Trump’s comeback at the White House could cause major disruptions for the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and more generally, global security. Europe has to acknowledge this reality, and see in it an opportunity to reaffirm its own place in the world.
The West is a spent force, say China, Russia and their global clique, yet it retains plenty of decisive cards including a choice to back Ukraine to the hilt. The year may yet reveal the world’s rising, and ranking, powers.
Though all-out war has not yet spread, there are a multiplying number of attacks, targeted and otherwise, taking place across borders that has all the makings of a region-wide conflagration.
In Ukraine and Gaza alike, international laws on the proper conduct of war, largely established by the post-War Geneva Convention, are being trampled on by all parties, to varying degrees. Civilians are paying the ultimate price for this.
Updated Dec. 31 2023 at 12:00 p.m. After a referendum held in March 1991, the creation of the post of president of Russia was created. Boris Yeltsin was elected Russia’s first president in an election of that kind. On this day in 1999, he resigned and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin. Why did Boris Yeltsin […]
Updated Dec. 27 2023 at 12:00 p.m. Benazir Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, and then leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for January 2008 when she was shot, in a suicide terrorist attack. When Was Benazir Bhutto killed? After eight years in exile in Dubai and […]
In two very different ways, the failure of the United Nations to inhibit aggressive nations is a sign of only more trouble ahead.
Updated Dec. 20, 2023 at 12:00 pm On this day in 1973, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, the prime minister of Spain was killed in Madrid after a massive bomb exploded under his car. Why was Carrero Blanco killed? Carrero Blanco was killed in Madrid by the Basque separatist group ETA, targeted due to his support […]
The recent repression of an old man dancing at a fish market shows how on edge Iran’s regime is domestically, writes Pierre Haski. While Iran may be stepping up its game regionally, its fragile attitude domestically can be a sign of what an irrational actor the mullah regime can be.
Updated Dec. 19, 2023 at 12:30 p.m. The Russian diplomat Andrei Karlov served as an ambassador to North Korea, and then Turkey. On this day in 2016, he was assassinated while giving a speech in Turkey — the moment captured by an Associated Press photographer who’d been assigned to cover the speech. How was Andrei […]
Updated Dec. 18, 2023 at 12:25 p.m. The United Arab Emirates is a monarchy, and had never allowed elections in its political system. That would change on this day in 2006. Why did the Arab Emirates decide to hold elections? The aim was to increase political participation among Emiratis through a “political empowerment program”, which […]
Updated Dec. 13, 2023 at 12:10 p.m. It was exactly 20 years ago that Saddam Hussein was captured by the United States military in the town of Ad-Dawr, Iraq. Why was the U.S. at war with Iraq? In 2003, a coalition between the United States and British forces initiated war on Iraq to depose Saddam […]
Is Venezuela’s President Maduro renewing the country’s long-standing claim to a big part of neighboring Guyana to distract from his unpopularity at home, to postpone next year’s general elections, or to nab some of Guyana’s rocketing oil wealth?
The American superpower (and its European allies) are not seeing the results they’d hoped for Ukraine’s war against Russia, while the Middle East spirals out of control. Chinese leaders may see Washington as too vulnerable to challenge it in the South China Sea.
The melting of the sea ice in the Far North has accelerated in recent years. The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard has become the focal point of the environmental drama gripping the Arctic as well as the geopolitical tensions it is causing there, with Russia in particular.
Updated Dec. 9, 2023 at 12:20 It was on this day in 1987 that a series of Palestinian protests and violent uprisings began in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel in defiance of Israeli occupation. The confrontation would last for nearly six years. How did the first Intifada begin? An Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) truck […]
Founder of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s, Hugo Chavez went on to be elected president of Venezuela in late 1998, serving until his death in 2013. How did Hugo Chavez rise to power? Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup against the Democratic Action Government of then President Carlos Andrés […]
Three days since the truce ended, the Israeli army announced that it had launched 10,000 airstrikes on Gaza since the beginning of the war. Total war continues, with the invader’s fiercest fight waged against life itself.