Recent Posts

Venezuelan president, top Russian diplomat overlap in Turkey

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were in Ankara on the same day. Two world figures under Western sanctions were guests at the same building in Ankara on Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro both arrived at Turkish leader Recep Tayyip …

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As Europe withdraws from Mali, Russia gets the upper hand

When Mali’s government saw Tuareg separatists and jihadists storming from the north toward the capital Bamako in 2012, it turned to France—a former colonial power—for help. Operation Serval stopped the advance and was later transformed into a regional counterterrorism operation, dubbed Barkhane. France was gradually joined by other European countries, …

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With Great-Power Crisis Comes Great-Power Opportunity

The War in Ukraine Should Prompt a New Opening to China Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—and the responses of the United States and China—has generated the first great-power crisis in decades. Such crises are rare and terrifying, especially in the nuclear age. Understandably, therefore, countries go to great lengths to avoid …

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China’s Southern Strategy

Beijing Is Using the Global South to Constrain America For the past decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping has endeavored to help China attain what it considers to be its rightful position at the center of the world stage. To do this, Xi—along with the rest of China’s leadership—is attempting to …

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The New Energy Order

How Governments Will Transform Energy Markets In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world appears to be at an inflection point. Business leaders have declared the acceleration of deglobalization and sounded the alarm about a new period of stagflation. Academics have decried the return of conquest and hailed …

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What If Ukraine Wins?

Victory in the War Would Not End the Conflict With Russia In recent days, many Western observers of the war in Ukraine have begun to worry that the tide is turning in Russia’s favor. Massive artillery fire is yielding incremental Russian gains in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, and Russia is …

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