Op-ed

The Black Sea’s present and future are tied up with the progression and outcome of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The world at large has an essential stake in the Black Sea’s freedom. Its security is simply too important to be left to the vagaries of the …

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, during the “Great Game” between the Russian Empire and British Empires, Central Asia was divided into spheres of influence. Five of the modern “stans” were under St. Petersburg’s control. The Emirate (then Kingdom) of Afghanistan was neutral. Pakistan was then a …

China employs various “gray zone” tactics—moderately aggressive actions that are not egregious enough to provoke conventional military retaliation­—against multiple adversaries. One such tactic is deployed within the United States: undeclared influence operations through social media. Chinese government-linked activity has recently become more worrisome. Previously, the principal danger was …

Israel does not want to run the Gaza Strip, and yet that may allow Hamas to regroup.  Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is grinding on after seven months of fighting Hamas. Since the October 7 attack, Israel has faced not only threats from Hamas in Gaza but also …

Great powers are once again resorting to proxy wars, manipulating weaker nations to fight their battles. This allows them to achieve strategic goals and avoid direct confrontation. Proxy wars, a timeless fixture of geopolitics, have returned amid escalating strategic rivalries. Major powers, avoiding direct confrontation, manipulate third-party forces …

Eng. Saleem Al Batayneh In a world where money and politics often intertwine to corrupt societies, the upcoming parliamentary elections in Jordan provide a glimmer of hope. Slovenian philosopher and critic Slavoj Žižek once said that the marriage of money and politics leads to corruption, undermining national security …

In the Philippines, the proponents of the trilateral alliance frame it as a response to the “threat of assertive China.” In reality, the unwarranted trilateral alliance seems to be the result of a longstanding US maritime counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign, resting on the work of the US Navy Department …

Diaspora Jews, Palestinian Israelis, and Turkish Kurds have more in common than meets the eye. The similarities in how the three minority communities define themselves offer insights into what will make either a one- or two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict viable. To be sure, it’s hard to …

James Holmes The United States’ standing in the world hinges on alliances and fellowships of all types—chiefly in the rimlands and marginal seas ringing the Eurasian supercontinent. America has no strategic position in the rimlands without them. So I winged out to Chicago last month for a symposium …