Since 1991, the United Nations has led a series of fruitless efforts to resolve the standoff over Western Sahara. A swath of desert about the size of the entire United Kingdom, Western Sahara is claimed both by the Polisario Front—a rebel group that the UN recognizes as the legitimate representative …

Climate Change Will Fuel Contests—and Maybe Wars—for Land and Resources Since the mid-twentieth century, the power dynamics and system of alliances that made up the postwar global order provided a strong check on campaigns to conquer and acquire territory—an otherwise enduring feature of human history. But rather than marking a …

Latest Developments ‘U.S. and Iran Should Solve All Problems Through Negotiations’: A top spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime confirmed on March 4 that Moscow was willing to mediate between the United States and Iran over the ongoing Iranian nuclear program. “Russia believes that the United States and Iran …

Introduction With the February 10 executive order renewing and enhancing US tariffs on steel and aluminum,1 President Donald Trump has given shape to his vision of the United States in the global economy. It is a vision of economic security based on walling off the United States from free flows …

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has called for a ceasefire and an eventual end to the armed struggle.[1] Mazloum Abdi, the General Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), welcomed Öcalan’s appeal, viewing it as a crucial opportunity for peace. Abdi stated that the …

The German far-right “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) recently achieved a remarkable electoral success: More than 10.3 million citizens, or 20.8 percent of all participating voters, granted it a record 152 seats in the Bundestag,[1] German parliament’s lower chamber. The party is considered not only ultra-right, but is almost always called …

Latest Developments Plan Calls for Palestinian State on 1967 Borders: Representatives from Arab League nations endorsed Egypt’s five-year plan to rebuild Gaza without resettling its residents during an emergency summit in Cairo on March 4. The plan includes three phases and will cost an estimated $53 billion. Egypt’s plan also …

The Arab peace plan for Gaza sidelines the strip’s rulers, Hamas, as well as the internationally recognized, inept and corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA), but only for six months, “in preparation for enabling the PA to fully return to the Gaza Strip.” In the interim, a “Gaza Administration Committee is being …

The U.S. Army said Saturday it had killed a top military leader of Hurras al-Din, a Syrian branch of Al-Qaida that announced its dissolution in January. The U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement that its forces on Feb. 23 …

This scenario is increasingly in America and Russia’s shared interests vis-à-vis their “New Détente”. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban predicted late last month that “Ukraine, or what remains of it, will once again be a buffer zone” between NATO and Russia once the conflict inevitably ends. His rationale is that …