In the quiet coastal waters of the Taiwan Strait last week, a Japanese destroyer, the JS Ikazuchi, performed a maneuver that was less about navigation and more about necro-politics. For fourteen grueling hours, the vessel lingered in the sensitive waterway, timed precisely to coincide with the anniversary of …

The current crisis sits at the intersection of multiple overlapping conflicts involving Israel, Lebanon, and Iran. What began as a regional escalation involving Israeli forces and the Iran backed group Hezbollah has evolved into a broader geopolitical standoff. Central to this is the strategic importance of the Strait …

There is something telling about a smile in Washington. Not the ceremonial kind that accompanies routine diplomacy, but the carefully staged image of acceptance—the kind that signals a transaction already agreed upon behind closed doors. Reports of meetings between associates of Ahmed al-Sharaa and members of the United States Congress suggest more …

Hadi Elis For much of the past two decades, Turkish politics has been structured around internal antagonisms. The governing project of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan relied on mobilising domestic fault lines—most notably tensions with Kurdish movements and the secularist establishment—to consolidate power and reconfigure the republic’s ideological orientation. Today, however, that …

Thomas Cavanna After 16 years in power, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a massive defeat in Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election. Many observers have described the outcome as a stern ideological rebuke of the Trump administration, which lobbied heavily in Orbán’s favor, and have argued that Orbán’s defeat …

Hridoy Sarkar America has engaged in yet another war in the Middle East through Operation Epic Fury, which began with the airstrikes on Iran on February 28 of this year. After the uncomfortable experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan, America tried to extricate itself from the Middle East and …

Mohammad Nosseir A conflict that has lasted nearly eight decades may require an approach different from the recurring cycles of war that all parties have pursued. The war in Gaza following the October 7 attack demonstrated that making life unbearable for Gaza’s civilians will not end this long-standing …

Sibgha Hadi Africa has shown itself in the past week again as a continent of dramatic contrasts, in which moral leadership, political turmoil, and financial aspiration come into collision in a manner that would not only chart its own future but also that of the world. The continent …

 Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh In moments of systemic rupture—when geopolitics collides with capital flows—the illusion of a neutral global financial order dissolve. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has long functioned as a pivotal stabiliser within that order, recycling hydrocarbon surpluses into global markets, particularly those of the United States. Yet the intensifying …