When Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held consecutive Beijing summits, Western observers fixated on a false binary: Is China tilting toward Moscow or Washington? This framing amounts to a fundamental category error. Beijing rejects old balance-of-power logic and never faces a forced choice between great powers. Its foreign policy is …

Key Takeaways: Dawit Giorgis argues the Horn of Africa is becoming a global choke-point crisis as attention shifts from Hormuz: he blames Ethiopia’s Abiy government, AU alignment with Addis, thin U.S. grasp of the ground, and the UAE under MbZ as a “sub-imperial” actor via DP World ports (Berbera, Bosaso, …

Key Takeaways: After a Sept. 14 Gulf–Iran meeting slipped, the author links Houthi hits that shut Saudi’s 1,200-km east–west pipeline, a UKMTO-reported projectile strike in Hormuz, and August U.S. Treasury moves (Dubai/Asia designations; “Operation Economic Outcast”) as twin pressure on oil routes and Iran’s money channels. Drawing on Farrell and …