An army leader miscalculated the costs of wresting back power. Now the country reels from the violence. Few countries this year dramatize more powerfully the need for a global focus on strengthening democracy than Myanmar, now 10 months into a new chapter of military dictatorship and violence following its February …

West Africa’s economic community shows that democracies’ best ally may be regional influence. As dozens of nations seek to strengthen democracy at this week’s White House summit, indicators for effective methods can be found in Guinea, one of five nations that this year suffered a coup by its military. An …

Regional and international actors will need to prioritize locally devised and accepted solutions to tackle the roots causes of Mali’s troubles. Amid a 15-year global democratic recession, the Biden administration is convening over a hundred nations this week to revitalize democracy. This comes at a critical juncture, as democracy’s defenders …

Sudan has been ruled by the military for 53 of the 66 years since it gained independence in 1955. On October 25, the military, in a familiar move, seized power throwing into question the political transition that would result in civilian rule. The civilian cabinet was dissolved, its leaders arrested …

As August ended, American troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan almost 20 years after they first arrived. On the formal date of withdrawal, however, President Biden insisted that “over-the-horizon capabilities” (airpower and Special Operations forces, for example) would remain available for use anytime. “[W]e can strike terrorists and targets without …

But U.S. Power Faces Threats at Home “Time and momentum are on our side,” declared Chinese President Xi Jinping in January. But developments this year have not borne out Xi’s confidence about China’s inexorable rise. A number of structural weaknesses have been dragging down China’s prospects: a rapidly aging population, …

But AI Can Boost Cyber Defenses, Too It has been a challenging year for U.S. cyberdefense operations. A dramatic surge in ransomware attacks has targeted such critical national infrastructure as the Colonial Pipeline—which was shut down for six days in May, disrupting fuel supplies to 17 states—and halted the operation …

The West Must Respond to Russia With Strength, Not Appeasement Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a stark ultimatum. In a number of recent statements, he has demanded that the United States make “reliable and firm legal guarantees” that NATO will not expand eastward—or else, his entourage has hinted, Russia …

Le groupe russe Wagner mènerait une bataille de com’ sur les réseaux sociaux, flirtant avec la désinformation. Sur des médias maliens plus traditionnels, l’opération Barkhane y va aussi de ses spots publicitaires… Au Mali, comme dans d’autres pays africains en mal de sécurité, grincent les dents des antennes militaires des …

An onslaught of attacks on Kurdish peshmerga forces and villages in northern Iraq has sparked concerns over the presence of Islamic State cells and whether they have been bulked up by jihadis arriving from Syria. A recent string of attacks targeting Kurdish forces in northern Iraq in areas disputed between …