Although the international community can help, Libyans will ultimately have to decide for themselves how to reach a sustainable peace. This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the uprising that overthrew the four-decade dictatorship of Muammar Qaddafi. In the intervening decade, Libya has been mired in conflict and political gridlock, …
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Six Challenges for the Biden Administration’s China Policy
Can Washington work with its allies and partners to shape Beijing’s behavior and find realistic ways to cooperate on shared interests? Last week, President Biden held a call with General Secretary Xi Jinping, China’s paramount leader. They reportedly talked for more than two hours, a length that, combined with the …
Read More »Killings on the rise in Syria’s al-Hol camp
There were far more deaths than usual in the camp for Islamic State families in January amid calls from the United Nations and Kurdish forces for countries to take back their citizens. There was a deadly uptick in violence in the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria last month. A …
Read More »UAE dismantling base in Eritrea following drawdown in Yemen
Images from The Associated Press show vehicles and structures being removed from the Emirates’ military base. The United Arab Emirates is dismantling its military base on the Horn of Africa. The move follows the UAE’s lessening involvement in the Yemeni civil war. Satellite images obtained by The Associated Press show …
Read More »Is Hamas exploiting Libya chaos to smuggle arms into Gaza?
The Times reported that a Hamas envoy to Libya has set up an arms-smuggling group to funnel weapons to the Gaza Strip, which was categorically denied by Hamas. “The Palestinian militant group Hamas used the chaos of Libya’s civil war to set up an arms-smuggling group that tried to funnel …
Read More »Sisi pledges Egypt’s support for interim government in Libya
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with newly elected Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh in Cairo on Thursday. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged his support for Libya’s newly elected government during a meeting in Cairo Thursday with the interim prime minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh. During UN-facilitated talks in Geneva, Switzerland, …
Read More »NATO to expand its training mission in Iraq to 4,000 troops
The Pentagon welcomed NATO’s increased contribution to training Iraq’s security forces. NATO has agreed to significantly broaden its military advising and stabilization mission in Iraq to roughly 4,000 troops, the alliance announced Thursday. “Today we decided to expand NATO’s training mission in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces as they …
Read More »Does ‘Syrian trio’ of Russia, Iran and Turkey have a future?
There are signs that the Astana talks on the Syrian war — which began in 2017 and are sponsored by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran — have little prospect of making progress going forward.
Read More »When It Comes to Soft Power, China Is Already Outpacing the U.S.
The coming crisis of American power that is sure to follow the November election will be unique in U.S. history. Competing with China, Russia and whatever other major rivals may emerge will be less about aircraft carriers, fighter jets, nuclear submarines and stealth bombers than ever before, and more about …
Read More »On Trade, Trump Is Turning the U.S. Into a Cheap Copy of China
Reciprocity has become the watchword for the Trump administration’s increasingly confrontational approach to China, from imposing limits on the movement of Chinese diplomats and journalists within the U.S., to banning Chinese-owned social media and messaging platforms TikTok and WeChat. The immediate goal is to impose costs for Beijing’s similar restrictions …
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