Rahul Pandey June 1, Operation Spider’s Web can be considered a watershed moment in the Russia–Ukraine war but cannot be understood as a watershed alone without comparing it with other recent events such as Israel’s Pager attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria in September 2024. The question …

Matthew Maavak There is a well-worn rhetorical device deployed from Islamabad to Istanbul, echoed with minor variations across various Muslim-majority capitals: Kashmir is the Palestine of South Asia. But what appears on the surface as a passionate defense of Muslim dignity is in fact a geopolitical sleight of …

Staikou Dimitra  “And what didn’t you do to bury me — but you forgot that I was a seed.” — Dinos Christianopoulos These haunting words by the Greek poet evoke the resilience of dissent. But in today’s geopolitical climate, they also echo the perilous cost of speech — …

Zamir Awan The Gaza Strip, once densely populated and impoverished, now stands as a tragic emblem of one of the 21st century’s gravest humanitarian crises. Since October 2023, when the latest Israeli military offensive began, the enclave has witnessed devastation on an unimaginable scale—indiscriminate bombings, widespread displacement, collapse …

Yi Wang In 2025, China and the European Union mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. According to public information, the EU-China Summit is scheduled to take place in Beijing in late July. Whether the summit can yield substantive outcomes is a matter of great …

Othon A. Leon & David Oliver* The Red Sea, particularly the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, has evolved as one of the world’s most hazardous maritime routes. Since late 2023, attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping have hampered global trade, forcing massive vessel rerouting around Africa, raising insurance …

Seth J. Frantzman The IDF’s exhaustion and Hamas’ dogged survival points to the likelihood of a Gaza ceasefire in the next two months. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continue to expand operations in Gaza. On July 20, the IDF told Gazans to evacuate an area near the coastal …

Sinan Ciddi The recent sectarian violence shows that the Syrian government and its Turkish backers share a dangerous vision of a Sunni-dominant state. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, Turkey has pursued a singular objective: the “Sunnification” of Syria. Behind his rhetoric, President Recep …

Greg Priddy Sanctions targeting oil are often ineffective at changing governmental policy and often impose additional costs on companies and consumers. Amid the current media firestorm around L’Affaire Epstein, few people other than Chevron shareholders noticed the headline last Friday about the Trump administration loosening sanctions on Venezuela …