North Korea policy in the first Trump administration allowed the U.S. to test the proposition that maximum sanctions pressure on the North Korean economy, combined with the allure of summit-level diplomacy with the U.S., would sufficiently alter Kim Jong Un’s calculus about giving up his nuclear deterrent. That …

By January 20, 2025, when Donald John Trump or someone else is sworn in, the United States could be in a hot war with North Korea. Donald Trump turned America’s North Korea policy upside down. After a period of strict sanctions enforcement and inflammatory words—“fire and fury,” “locked …

Dr. Shehab Al Makahleh The unfolding dynamics in the Middle East, particularly amidst the ongoing Gaza war, signal a complex interplay of global power politics. As historian Paul Kennedy aptly observed in “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, the contemporary maneuverings of dominant nations in the …

Alexander Langlois Hassan Nasrallah portrayed an active fight against Israel and the chance of escalation to depict his group’s efforts to fight the enemy, likely hoping to subdue criticism for perceived inaction. All eyes were on Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in anticipation of his first speech since …

Gregg Priddy  The Biden administration must defuse escalation before it’s too late. The sighs of relief in Washington that accompanied Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on November 3, in which he did not signal any immediate escalation against Israel, now seem premature. While it is clear that neither Iran …

Seth Frantzman Israel will need a broader regional strategy to defeat Hamas after the war in Gaza. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Saturday, November 12. Convened to address the ongoing war in Gaza, the meeting occurred during a …

Jerry Jaar The rationale and timing of the Biden-Xi meetup should be clear: both leaders are confronting challenges domestically and internationally. The United States announced in August new visa restrictions on current and former Chinese officials for their involvement in what U.S. and U.N. officials say is the …

Antonia Dimou Nowadays, there is a growing awareness of the geopolitical importance of the East Mediterranean in its own right, as an arena with explicit dynamics of cooperation, competition, and conflict. It has all the characteristics of a distinct region, which however interacts and functions in complementarity with …

James Dorsey It took Arab and Muslim leaders 35 days of war to call an ‘emergency’ meeting to discuss Israel’s assault on Gaza. Their limited ability to influence developments was on public display when they finally gathered this weekend in the Saudi capital Riyadh. So were the differences …