Geopolitics

Over the past two decades, Southeast Asia has faced a conflict that is no longer overt but has left behind a trail of escalating tensions. These tensions stem from actions that fall into a “gray zone,” carried out gradually and systematically. This strategy has been used by China …

U. S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. Recently, a set of U. S. draft proposals for peace was leaked, but European powers have proposed their own counter-proposals. U. S. …

Wina Siman In February 2025, President Donald Trump praised the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as ‘one of the greatest trade routes in history.’ While such optimism sounds appealing on the diplomatic stage, the author argues that the IMEC is fundamentally flawed and more likely to join the …

Dragos Ionita Japan and China are in their most dangerous diplomatic crisis in years as escalating tensions over Taiwan have cancelled earlier hopes of post-pandemic improvement. After COVID-19 restrictions were mostly lifted by 2023, relations between Beijing and Tokyo seemed to slowly improve. However, by late 2025 a …

Adrian Gvinda “Nothing grows in the shadow of great trees,” said the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși when he left his master, Rodin. He wasn’t rebelling for rebellion’s sake; he was claiming the space to become himself. He spoke of art, but he might as well have been speaking of …

Ed Husain The Islamist group and its ideology have long been a stumbling block for Sudan’s stability and development. President Donald Trump has vowed to ban the Muslim Brotherhood in America and end the civil war in Sudan after Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman asked for American …

Paul R. Pillar The Trump administration’s flurry of shoddy “peace deals” is built on an unstable foundation. President Donald Trump’s public yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize has led him to stretch beyond recognition the meaning of the terms “peace agreement” and “mediation.” He claims credit for anything …

Rahul Mishra Amid heightened Japan-China tensions, US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While Trump termed it a positive development, stating he would visit China in April 2026, China claimed that it categorically made it clear that “Taiwan’s return to China was an …

Putri Mayang Rembulan The Houthi attack on merchant ships in the Red Sea shows that asymmetric strategies have become one of the most disruptive forces in international security, often more effective than conventional state military power. The operations of these non-state groups not only disrupt global trade routes …