World News & Analysis

From the Sahel to Iraq, authority is produced through negotiation among distributed actors rather than imposed by centralized institutions. US diplomacy continues to ignore these sovereign ecosystems at its own peril.

Iran's selective passage list in the Strait of Hormuz reveals a logic that Alfred Thayer Mahan's framework cannot explain — but a ninth-century Islamic jurist anticipated with precision.

Examining the latest developments in the US-Israel Iran war; how President Trump’s latest attacks on NATO allies are producing a new response; and mounting global economic fallout from supply chain disruptions in the Persian Gulf.

Structural constraints of an increasingly multipolar global system mitigate against the risk of the Iran conflict spiraling into World War III.

Preserving the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not about ceremonial remembrance alone; it is about anchoring contemporary policy in the concrete realities of human suffering, systemic breakdown, and climate vulnerability.

As seen in the recent Orion critical minerals deal, the next chapter of mining consolidation will likely be defined through state-backed consortiums as opposed to organic market forces that culminate in mega-mergers.

A recent landmark report is sounding the alarm on the risks of unregulated AI advancement. Will governments listen?

The end of the era of global alliances marks the beginning of a new security architecture, one in which effectiveness is ensured by flexibility and security rests on concrete, targeted action between like-minded allies.

The Court in The Hague can issue judgments, but the world must decide whether they matter.

The era of the bystander is over. In 2026, you are either at the table, on the lease, or in the way.

Márquez reminded us that even the foretold can be undone by a single act of conscience. The question is whether the global community, having rehearsed its own tragedy for so long, can similarly improvise a different ending.

2025 marks the 74th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, yet the gap between its bold promises and the harsh realities facing refugees worldwide is becoming increasingly stark.

Amid mounting airspace violations on the alliance’s eastern flank by Russian drones and jets, it’s time for NATO to respond on its own terms, rather than the Kremlin’s.

This week we cover the deployment of a Typhon launcher in Japan; an insurgent fuel blockade in Mali; advances in EU-India relations; and recent Russian violations of NATO airspace.

Considerable insight has been gained on countering the recruitment and radicalization efforts of groups like Islamic State on social media over the past decade. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.