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Geopolitics

India’s Modi Is Strong Enough To Stand Up To Trump — So Why Doesn’t He?

India’s silence on Trump’s imperialistic notions about taking over Greenland and Gaza does not sit well with its growing relative strength in the world.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Asma Al-Assad In Exile? Searching For The Real Story Of Syria’s Former First Lady

Despite her pleasant air and sense of fashion, the now former Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad was bound to be tied to her husband’s fate. Born and raised in the UK, she was respected by some for openly battling cancer and later adored in China for her glamour. Still, she was largely despised at home for having helped cover her husband’s long list of alleged war crimes.

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics special series

For Beijing, Trump May Be The Lesser Of Two Evils

Republicans and Democrats agree on just one thing: being tough with China. That’s why Chinese leaders are not expressing a preference in the U.S. presidential election. Yet some in Beijing are leaning toward Donald Trump and what they see as his penchant for “pragmatism” and “deals” between China and the United States.

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Society Women Worldwide

Iranian Court Orders Woman To Obey Her Husband — And Promises To Enforce It

The decision is yet another example of how Iran’s laws since the 1979 revolution have restricted women’s rights both inside and outside the home.

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Geopolitics

Will Israel’s Next War Be Against The UN In Southern Lebanon?

The Israeli Prime Minister is demanding that UN peacekeepers leave the combat zones in southern Lebanon, in yet another crisis in the difficult relations between Israel and the United Nations. But this could be the point of no return.

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Geopolitics

History Returns? The Ominous Reality Of D-Day’s 80th Anniversary

From Ukraine to the South China Sea, images of war are highly reminiscent of the horrors of the past. As the world marks 80 years since the Normandy landings of World War II, geopolitical analyst Dominique Moïsi wonders if history is bound to repeat itself.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Are We Ready For War With Russia? The Unspoken Question The West Must Face

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.

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Geopolitics

Lula’s Visit To China Is Business As Usual — And Pure Political Calculation

Brazilian President Lula da Silva is sticking to Brazil’s favored policy of diplomatic non-alignment while visiting China, hoping to win his country all the business and export deals he can sign.

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In The News

The Xi-Putin Alliance Is Dead, Long Live The Xi-Putin Alliance

The façade of unity between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin was lifted in Uzbekistan last week. But where exactly does the Chinese head of state stand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Beijing is still establishing its place in the world, and it remains in contradiction to the West

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Economy Russia-Ukraine War

As Global Economy Tanks, Future Russian Sanctions Get Harder For West To Swallow

Kyiv wants the West to hit at the heart of the Russian economy, especially its energy exports, as the best weapon Ukraine and its allies may have. But with the EU preparing its 7th package of sanctions, it must strike a delicate balance as the global economy is on the brink of a major crisis.

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In The News

Why Iranians And Israelis Have More In Common Than You Think

Israel’s vocal support for Iranians protesting the regime will lay the grounds for ties with a future democratic Iran, whenever that may come.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan: Perils Of A Diplomatic Triangle

Russia’s foreign minister visited Pakistan for the first time in nine years — just in time for the deadline for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. It points to an important change of actors in one of the deadliest conflict zones in the world.

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Ideas

The Empty Hype Of India’s ‘Vaccine Diplomacy’

In a rush to bolster its image, the Modi government is giving away coronavirus vaccines that will do little for the country’s international standing and would be better served at home.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Understanding The Limits Of German Influence Over Russia

BERLIN — Over the past two weeks, since the allegations of election rigging in Belarus, there have been calls for Germany to open a dialogue with Russia. As if the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and a permanent seat in the UN Security Council is nothing more than a wayward child that Germany […]

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Economy Eyes on the U.S. Ideas

A French Defense Of Trump’s New Tariffs On European Products

The U.S. president has a history of strong-arming trading partners. But the move to tax things like French wine and Spanish olives is actually justified.

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In The News

The Tide Of History, From Mar A Lago To Havana

What does Donald Trump see when he looks out toward Cuba? Havana, after all, is just a few hundred miles south of the U.S. President’s own coastal getaway at Mar a Lago, Florida. In Trump’s eyes, is the island nation still fundamentally a Communist enemy, even though the Cold War ended nearly three decades ago? […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

How A Trump Presidency Looks In The Middle East

The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States has prompted several reactions, with those who see his political ascension as the beginning of a new phase of political unrest — of which the Arab world is feared to carry the lion’s share — being gripped by panic. Immediately following the […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Philippines, Underestimate Rodrigo Duterte At Your Peril

The controversial new Filippino president, who arrives in China today, has mostly garnered attention for his brutal crackdown on drug dealers. But his ambitions go far beyond.

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas Trump And The World

What Putin Would Do With A President Trump

-OpEd- So let’s stipulate: Donald Trump is not Vladimir Putin’s willing agent, and it’s not certain if or to what extent Putin is trying to elect Trump president. The real issue is that Trump and Putin share the same nihilistic approach to international relations. Together, they could transform our world. Putin already has fostered a current of ruthless, cynical and utterly unprincipled opportunism in what, before his arrival, was thought of as an increasingly cooperative and rational international community. The Russian president has embraced and perfected the use of lies for geopolitical advantage, pursued and murdered his opponents in foreign […]

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blog

Xi Jinping, A Stars-And-Stripes Front Page In China

Renmin Ribao, June 7, 2016 Tuesday’s front page of the Chinese state-run daily Renmin Ribao features President Xi Jinping in front of American and Chinese flags as he spoke at China-U.S. bilateral talks in Beijing. The 8th round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Development and the 7th round of China-U.S. Cultural Exchanges and High Level […]

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Economy Geopolitics

Cuba, Early Signs Of A New Entrepreneurial Impulse

Earning cash and starting a business are no longer frowned upon on the island nation, as the rapprochement with the U.S. sets the stage for a different kind of Cuban economy.

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Geopolitics

As Myanmar Looks West, Relations With China Cool

BEIJING — Relations between Myanmar and China remain tense after a bomb from a Burmese military plane fell in the Chinese border province of Yunnan last week. The bomb killed four people and injured another nine and also prompted a good number of Burmese to taking refuge on the Chinese side. China responded to the […]

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Society

My Bogus Marriage To A Refugee Friend

Germany is tracking the growing number of so-called “protective” marriages, arranged among friends to avoid an immigrant being sent back to poverty and peril in their home country.

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Economy Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics Ideas

The Business Logic Driving Cuba-U.S. Rapprochement

If nothing else, the United States and Cuba stand to earn plenty of cash with a future end to sanctions feeding booms of American exports, Cuban tourism and infrastructure development.

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blog

U.S. And Cuba Make History: 22 Front Pages Around The World

The United States and Cuba stunned the world by ending more than a half-century as sworn enemies. The presidents of the two neighbors Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced Wednesday a deal to exchange prisoners on the road to restoring full diplomatic relations. This is how the Western Hemisphere and the wider world reacted: Cuba […]

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Economy

China, Still A Shady Neighbor for Southeast Asian Countries

BEIJING — What is holding back trade expansion with Southeast Asian countries? And why are they always turning to the U.S. whenever something happens? These two questions capture Chinese central concerns as voiced at the recent “China-ASEAN-East Asia: Cooperations and Challenges” forum, an event held by the think tank on China’s public policy Anbound Consulting. […]

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blog

Signs Of Iran-Egypt Thaw At Al-Sisi Inauguration

There is a more than three-decade-long clash of cultures between Egypt’s secular establishment and Iran’s post-revolution clerical regime. The brief interlude following the election of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was, alas, too brief to notice any significant change. But all eyes in Tehran were back on Egypt this past weekend for the inauguration of […]

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Geopolitics

Turkey And Israel, Frenemies Forever?

Much has changed, but some has not, in the complicated relationship between Israel and Turkey.

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Ideas Ukraine Winter

Ukraine And Western Europe’s Blind Spot On Eastern Expansion

BERLIN — It looked as if a great moment might be in the making: German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Polish colleague Radoslaw Sikorski had teamed up with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and the trio flew to Kiev for joint talks with the then-Ukrainian government and opposition. At the time violence on Maidan […]

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Geopolitics

How Ukranian-EU Dreaming Looks From Poland

For one prominent Polish columnist, all the European Union’s panting for expansion to the East may lead it to choke on its own ambitions.

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