Eurasia

What’s new? Khuzestan, one of Iran’s most resource-rich provinces and the fifth most populous, is a microcosm of the country’s most serious problems. It suffers from severe environmental degradation, economic deprivation and socio-political discontent. The water scarcity that sparked protests in mid-2021 will almost certainly recur and could trigger similar unrest. …

The al-Qaeda offshoot is focused on defending its territory from Russian-backed Syrian government forces, but it has also clashed with the Islamic State recently. Several members of the Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham were killed in Russian airstrikes early Monday morning. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported …

The United States lavished military aid on Niger and nearby countries. But the ties we built have turned out to be tenuous. Ever since the US Army established Africa Command in 2007, the vast West African country of Niger has been the apple of our eye. Working with a pro-Western …

Thwarted by minefields, Ukrainian forces won’t reach the southeastern city of Melitopol, a vital Russian transit hub, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment The U.S. intelligence community assesses that Ukraine’s counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of Melitopol, people familiar with the classified forecast told The Washington …

The global south is hungry for an alternative to the Western-dominated order, but BRICS may not be up to the task. The next test of whether top U.S. adversaries can erode its role as the leading global superpower will come in the form of a major diplomatic confab in South …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is known for many things, but subtlety isn’t one of them. To coincide with the launch of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills on Monday local time, North Korean state media released a photo of Kim observing the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles off the …

At the end of July, a Russian military delegation led by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General Sergei Shoigu, visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. An official welcoming ceremony for the Russian delegation was held at the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang with the participation of …

The United States has been instrumental in leading the post-war global economic system which it helped create. Yet its economic weight has declined over time and strategic competitors in emerging markets are calling for change, including possible ‘decoupling’. Some suggest that the US dollar’s days as the central global currency …

Imran Khan’s transformation from prime minister to prisoner stands as a stark cautionary tale for global leaders who challenge the ‘rules-based international order.’ In a striking judicial development on 5 August, a court in Islamabad handed down a significant verdict against former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The court found …

The Iraqi prime minister’s comments come a day after security sources suggest planes carrying US military personnel arrived at Ain al-Asad base in Anbar Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated that Iraq “no longer needs the presence of foreign combat forces on its soil,” in a meeting with several …