Economics

With Astana’s entry, the Abraham Accords have entered into a new phase. Today, in a monumental step, Kazakhstan joined Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan as the sixth member of the Abraham Accords. The decision may come as a surprise to many observers, who have …

Desmond Lachman President Trump’s management of the US economy is setting his party up for failure in the 2026 midterms. James Carville, Bill Clinton’s political advisor, famously said that when it came to elections, “it’s the economy, stupid.” This week’s convincing Democratic Party triumph at the polls in …

Graham Allison President Trump’s statements about nuclear testing affirm his determination to ensure that the United States maintains the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world. Last week, President Trump announced that “because of other countries[’] testing programs,” he had “instructed the Department of War to begin testing …

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a set of 17 metallic elements that have become indispensable to modern technology and defense industries. Although they are not truly “rare” in the Earth’s crust, they are difficult to find in concentrated deposits and are expensive to separate and refine. The group …

When Ethiopia’s prime minister revived his call for sea access in early 2024, regional headlines lit up overnight. It was not just about trade or logistics, at least not entirely. It reopened a decades-old wound, the kind that never really heals in the Horn of Africa: who controls …

  Emily Vartuhi Great power competition is mushrooming beyond the old domains of land and warfare; it’s in the world of cryptocurrencies as well. The government shutdown has an unlikely casualty: cryptocurrency policy. You would think that because decentralization is a core pillar of cryptocurrency, advocates would be …

Aaron Bartnick In competing with China in global markets, the United States should not seek to create an imitation command-economy from scratch. At an October 15 event promoting investment in the United States, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remarked: “When you are facing a nonmarket economy like China then …

Janan Ganesh A lack of rare earths is just one way in which nature disadvantages the continent As the European wine harvest ends, we might reflect on that controversial word “terroir”. It is hard to define but tends to refer to the non-human factors of production: the geographic …

Joseph Epstein Armenia’s prime minister has diligently worked for peace and integration in the Caucasus despite withering domestic criticism. The political survival of Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has been nothing short of remarkable. Since rising to power during Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution, the embattled prime minister has …