The looming May 14–15 summit in Beijing between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping presents a puzzle that conventional geopolitical maps struggle to navigate. As Trump seeks to end the major military operations against Iran before this high-stakes visit, he will find a Chinese leader who is not coming …

Iran’s new protocol for the Strait of Hormuz is not a normal maritime regulation. It is a wartime instrument being repackaged as a postwar order. The Reuters report on the ceasefire bargain, the Reuters report on Tehran’s preconditions, and the Reuters report on the Islamabad talks all point …

Lexy Reid The 2026 Iran War has functioned thus far as a critical juncture for European security, demonstrating Europe’s continued reliance on US strategic leadership as well as revealing Europe’s exclusion from US high-level military decision-making. The war has also confirmed an asymmetry: Europe bears the consequences of …

On February 28th, nearly 900 strikes in 12 hours by the United States and Israel hit Iran. By morning, the Supreme Leader was dead. Within days, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, oil surged past $120 a barrel, and Gulf skies filled with interceptors chasing drones that refused …

Lisdey Pedraza On 7 March 2026, Donald Trump convened a select group of Latin American and Caribbean leaders at his own golf resort in Doral, Florida, under the banner of the “Shield of the Americas”. The optics were deliberate: strength, unity, urgency. The setting was telling in a …

Xi Jinping has called for the international rule of law to be upheld in the Middle East, in a pointed critique of the ongoing Iran war involving the United States and Israel. Speaking during a meeting in Beijing with Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Xi warned …

Israeli and Lebanese envoys are set to meet in Washington in US mediated negotiations aimed at reducing escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon. The talks come amid intensified fighting involving the Iran backed group Hezbollah during the wider Iran war. The conflict escalated after Hezbollah launched missile strikes …

Nadia Hilmie The leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s opposition leader Cheng Li-wen, made a rare and historic visit to China from April 7 to 12, 2026. This was the first visit by a sitting KMT leader since 2016, and it came at the official invitation of Chinese …

Arthur Michelino Trump’s suggestion that the United States and Iran might co-administer toll revenues in the Strait of Hormuz has been walked back by the White House within hours. Actually, there is not even a serious reason to believe the joint venture specifically survives the two-week ceasefire window …