It’s (almost) official. With Finland’s president and prime minister officially backing their country’s membership in NATO on Thursday—and Sweden expected to do the same shortly—the path now seems clear for both countries to formally apply for membership in the Alliance. How did they arrive so quickly at this juncture? And …

The bottom line While Russia has made slight progress in the Donbas, the line of control has hardly budged and the Kremlin’s campaign has largely stalled.The Ukrainian counteroffensive near Kharkiv remains strong, with Russian forces being pushed back toward the Russian border.Russia continues to assault the Azovstal steel plant in …

In February 2022, the Council of the European Union (E.U.) gathered in Brussels to discuss the extension of the Coordinated Maritime Presence (CMP) concept to the North-Western Indian Ocean. First piloted in the Gulf of Guinea at the beginning of 2021, the CMP is a flexible tool to enhance maritime …