The Russia-Ukraine war is upending global supply chains. In the case of Central Asia (the five republics plus Afghanistan) this impact reinforces the need for redundant transport routes and options for the landlocked states of Central Asia. These states still rely on Soviet-era transport links that connect them to markets. …
Read More »Tesla’s China Game
It has not been a great spring for Tesla. As the American electric vehicle manufacturer’s stock led the recent market nosedive and its provocative CEO Elon Musk obsessed over his bid to buy Twitter, his beefs with the Biden administration and an allegation of misconduct by a private jet flight …
Read More »As Ukraine loses troops, how long can it keep up the fight?
As soon as they had finished burying a veteran colonel killed by Russian shelling, the cemetery workers readied the next hole. Inevitably, given how quickly death is felling Ukrainian troops on the front lines, the empty grave won’t stay that way for long. Col. Oleksandr Makhachek left behind a widow, …
Read More »Central banks are embracing digital currencies. Will the US lead or follow?
Last week, the new vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, Lael Brainard, testified before Congress that the United States was at risk of falling behind in the race for the future of money. Judging by the number of countries that have embraced fiat-based digital assets, she’s right. Two years …
Read More »Russia vs NATO: How Mali Became Another Front for the Ukraine War
The distance between Ukraine and Mali is measured in thousands of kilometers. But the geopolitical distance is much closer to the point that it appears as if the ongoing conflicts in both countries are the direct outcomes of the same geopolitical currents and transformation underway around the world. The Malian …
Read More »On Iran, Biden should reverse Trump’s imaginary statecraft
After countless ups, downs and near-death scrapes, the negotiations to restart the Iran nuclear deal appear to be hung up on one final disagreement: an end-of-game demand by Tehran to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps removed from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. On this question likely hangs …
Read More »Lebanon just had an election. Its result? Curb the optimism.
There’s little to celebrate about the outcome of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections on May 15. While the results demonstrate that an active minority are angry, the low voter turnout—41 percent—in an election billed as “decisive” for Lebanon’s future reveals that the country’s citizens are largely apathetic or disillusioned about the prospects …
Read More »Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinians amid West Bank violence
Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the last two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions. The Israeli military said forces operating in …
Read More »The impact of the war in Ukraine on Russian-Turkish relations and Black Sea security: Three potential scenarios
Russian-Turkish relations are in large part based on the personal chemistry, affinity, and trust between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put these personal ties to the test. While President Erdoğan also maintains a close working relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish-Ukrainian …
Read More »Egypt and India: Time to rebuild relations
Asia is undergoing a world-historical geopolitical transformation. The rise of the Indo-Pacific as a coherent geoeconomic and geopolitical system coincides with the rise of what this author has previously termed the “Indo-Abrahamic,” an emerging transregional order connecting India to West Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. Until now, the geographic vastness …
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