Eurasia

Since U.S. President Joe Biden’s election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been making diplomatic overtures to the West, pledging democratic reforms at home and promising a serious effort to improve ties with Turkey’s NATO partners. The Turkish leader told France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in a video call Tuesday that …

The Biden administration is turning Guam into a key forward operating base for deployments and other operations in the Western Pacific, with China the primary target. Guam’s centrality in America’s Indo-Pacific security strategy makes the island a key node. On Monday, Indo-Pacific Command submitted a request to Congress for an …

For the past decade Yemen has been torn apart by civil conflict, an extension of internecine strife that goes back much further. The main protagonists in the current struggle are the Houthis, a fundamentalist Shia militia group heavily dependent on Iran, and a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Sunni states determined …

After years of conflict and suspension, Hungary’s ruling party finally departs the EPP parliamentary group with accusations that the political family of Europe’s centre-right parties is trying to “mute and disable our democratically elected MEPs”. Hungary’s nationalist-populist ruling party confirmed on Wednesday earlier leaked reports it has decided to leave …

Oil markets have long been central to discussions of the global economy, and fluctuations in oil prices frequently gain widespread attention. This column explores the impact of the rising use of fracking on how oil markets are best conceived within modern macroeconomic theory. The author’s model predicts that as fracking …

Mohammed bin Salman is a charming fellow. The tall, dark, and handsome Saudi prince known as MbS has seduced world leaders and eager pundits left and right. To his supporters, MbS became first in line to the Saudi throne by championing reform in a deeply conservative Gulf kingdom, taking on …

Hopes for a spectacular relaunch of the European Union’s Franco-German “motor” after Brexit have thus far failed to materialize. Quite the contrary, now that Paris and Berlin find themselves without the British “third wheel,” almost every issue seems to trigger a bilateral squabble. Whether it is armaments cooperation, energy supply …

Senior U.S. officials have held a first direct meeting with officials from the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls Yemen’s capital, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the new U.S. administration pushes to end a six-year war. The discussions, which have not been officially made public by either side, …

The United States has proposed convening a United Nations-sponsored international conference on Afghanistan, a senior U.S. State Department official said. News of the proposal came as the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, wrapped up three days of talks in Kabul on March 3 aimed at reviving stalled Afghan …

The United States has welcomed a plan by NATO ally Germany to sail a warship across the disputed South China Sea for the first time after almost two decades, amid tensions with China in the resource-rich waters.