Military & Security

By D.K. In July, the Syrian city of As-Suwayda and its northern and western villages endured a barbaric assault that tore through the fabric of the community. More than one hundred women and girls were ripped from their homes in the dead of night and dragged into the …

Τhe Alaska Summit, on August 15, 2025, attracted media and diplomatic attention world-wide. Various theories have circulated; some viewed it as a “second Yalta”, leading to a groundbreaking resolution that could grant peace and end the Russian-Ukraine war. Others, more pragmatic than opportunists, saw it simply as an …

Resource competition has intensified between the two great powers, the US and China, due to trade and tariff wars. Recently, both the countries have made major policy shifts in the strategically significant rare earth sector. China discreetly issued 2025 rare earth mining and smelting quotas to its state-owned …

This November, Iraqis will once again head to the polls for parliamentary elections. Yet the outcome will be shaped less by formal parties than by the entrenched networks of militias that dominate Iraq’s political and security landscape. Since the last elections in October 2021—and the subsequent mass protests …

In an interview with Modern Diplomacy in mid-August 2025, Ms. Tandiwe Thelma Mgxwati, Minister Plenipotentiary and Charge d’Affaires a.i. at the South African Embassy, discussed South Africa’s presidency of the G20 and its influence on Africa in the context of geopolitical changes. Tandiwe Mgxwati further underlined the African …

Noureen Akhtar It was no normal day in Kabul on the 20th of August 2025. The city, once ravaged by war and suspicion, welcomed an event that could redraw the region’s map, the sixth Pakistan-Afghanistan-China trilateral meeting. For decades, Afghanistan has been considered a theater of disorder, characterized …

Bushra Ikram The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the only remaining bilateral arms control agreement between the United States (US) and Russia, is set to expire on February 5, 2026. The New START, which accounted for 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, was signed in …

ATHANASIOS G. PLATIAS Wars Are Easy to Start—and harder to End Starting a war is simple; ending one is far harder. The problem of war termination has long been neglected in both international relations theory and diplomatic practice. The assumption has always been that battlefield victory would automatically …

Good governance is imperative for successful private sector operations. Stable, predictable, and efficient business operations relyon a strong enabling environment with predictable rules and practices. How to ensure that such conducive conditions continue was the subject of a pair of roundtables hosted in July at the Center for …