Diplomacy & Politics Archive

It seemed, at first glance, like a fairly humdrum story about bilateral cooperation among African officials. Earlier this week, The Star, a Kenyan newspaper, reported that lawmakers from Zambia had traveled to Kenya to meet with members of the government’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission at their offices in Nairobi. The Zambians’ goal, the report said, was “to learn how to effectively fight corruption.” In the current political environment in Kenya, however, the story prompted immediate expressions of derision and exasperation. As it made the rounds on social media, a number of Kenyans made clear their conviction that if Zambian officials […]

Japan has been telegraphing its concerns to the United States about the potential impacts of the Trump administration’s decision last month to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. One Japanese official recently acknowledged Tokyo’s anxieties that it may be forced to cut off Iranian oil imports, which have resumed after the nuclear agreement was inked in 2015 and currently total some 170,000 barrels per day. An official from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recently indicated Tokyo does not want that to change and hopes for an exemption from sanctions the U.S. is preparing to impose again on […]

At a time when the international order is being challenged and decades-old conflicts appear to be in flux, perhaps it isn’t a surprise that anti-government protests in an impoverished Central American country have fallen under the radar. But the escalating unrest in Nicaragua, less than 1,000 miles from U.S. shores, could well morph into a catastrophe that grabs global attention, if the government there continues along its uncompromising path of repression. The toll of clashes between protesters and government forces has spiked to at least 148 dead and well over 1,000 wounded in recent weeks, according to the Nicaraguan Center […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series about press freedom and safety in various countries around the world. On May 31, 12 reporters from Slovakia’s public television and radio broadcaster, RTVS, resigned to protest what they called the politicization of news coverage under recently appointed management. The mass resignation followed the March murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, which triggered protests that ultimately brought down the government of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico. In an email interview, Andrej Školkay, director of the School of Communication and Media in Bratislava, discusses the charges of politicization of Slovakia’s public media, […]

On his five-nation swing through Asia last November, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his administration’s vision for a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” The idea of focusing attention and resources on the world’s most populous region, where America’s economic future lies, struck most observers as smart and strategic, although the details remained vague and were difficult to square with his moves to dismantle his predecessor’s trade policies in Asia. But now Trump’s emerging Middle East strategy, marked most of all by his withdrawal last month from the Iran nuclear deal, may derail whatever goals he has in Asia before they get […]

Let’s get this out of the way up top: The outcome of yesterday’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preferable to nuclear war. That’s a pretty low bar, of course, but lowering the bar increasingly seems like Trump’s one area of expertise. In any event, we can all be glad that he—and Kim—cleared it. After that, the verdict is less forgiving for Trump. When stripped of all its smoke and mirrors, its oddball pageantry and puffery, the summit delivered a boilerplate document rehashing previous talking points on both sides, with no new […]

In early October 2002, the British Conservative Party gathered at the Bournemouth International Centre on the south coast of England for its annual conference. Still traumatized by a second consecutive landslide defeat against the Labour Party, then headed by Tony Blair, the Tories had come together to plot their return to government after five long years out of power. On the opening day of the conference, the party chairwoman, Theresa May, took to the stage in an all-black outfit that added to the funereal atmosphere of the event. She told her fellow Tories something that many people were thinking, even […]

With well over a trillion dollars at stake, the next European Union budget has the potential either to strengthen a detente between Poland and Brussels, or become another issue dividing the bloc’s west and east. Further division would undermine Poland’s new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, whose supposedly technocratic approach has held out the promise of better ties with the EU. Last month, Poland’s minister for European affairs, Konrad Szymanski, called EU plans to link the bloc’s central budgetary payments to the rule of law in member states a “massive power grab.” Earlier in May, the European Commission, the EU’s executive […]

Editor’s note: This will be Ellen Laipson’s final weekly column for World Politics Review. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ellen for the thoughtful and lucid analysis she has offered WPR readers each week for the past three years. Ellen will continue writing regular briefings for WPR. As my three years as a weekly columnist for World Politics Review come to an end, I’d like to reflect on the experience, from the practical challenges of being a columnist to the topics I’ve considered and returned to from time to time. Editor-in-Chief Judah Grunstein came up with the title […]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a three-country tour of Southeast Asia in the late May and early June to tout his “Act East” policy. In Indonesia, he signed a deal to develop the country’s Sabang port at the mouth of the strategic Malacca Strait, while pledging to boost security and maritime cooperation. And in an address to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a forum on Asian security issues in Singapore, he pledged India’s commitment to free navigation and a rules-based order for maritime security in Asia. In an email interview, Anubhav Gupta, the assistant director of the Asia Society Policy Institute […]

Should we really be shocked, or even mildly surprised, when an upstart American president upsets the Group of Seven industrialized nations and suggests non-Western powers should enter the club? President Donald Trump trashed this weekend’s G-7 summit by not only bad-mouthing his counterparts over trade, singling out the Canadian hosts for extra bile, but also arguing that Russia should rejoin the group just four years after it was expelled over the Ukrainian war. Other G-7 leaders were distinctly unamused. Trump’s behavior was crude even by his undiplomatic standards. Yet he was hardly the first U.S. leader to question the G-7’s […]

In the run-up to Cambodia’s national elections next month, long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has taken no chances of a political shocker similar to the opposition win in nearby Malaysia in early May. To ensure that he and his party triumph again, Hun Sen has in the past year overseen the dissolution of the major opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP; harassed many opposition politicians into exile or tossed them in jail; and torn apart a vibrant and independent Cambodian media. Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, will now […]

During a January talk in Israel, retired Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director, warned that the world had entered an age of the “weaponization of everything.” What he meant was that weapons are no longer simply the traditional tools of war—guns, missiles, warplanes, naval ships and so forth—but everyday objects that can be adapted to damage, destroy or kill. Think, for instance, of the hijacked airliners in the Sept. 11 attacks, the increasingly common use of trucks and cars for terrorism, and the kinds of aggressive information warfare conducted through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns that exploit “fake news” and […]

On June 24, Turkish voters will head to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections that are being held approximately 15 months ahead of schedule. Popular wisdom among many Turkey watchers is that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose to call the elections early, back in April, because economic headwinds could worsen in the coming year, making it more risky to wait until November 2019, when the elections were originally due to take place. The stakes of this month’s vote are enormous. The elections are the last step before Turkey formally transitions to an executive presidential system of government, which Erdogan […]

A new mosque in traditional Ottoman style is currently being built in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square. Due to be completed later this year, it is just one of thousands of new mosques going up across Turkey. But the construction in Taksim is particularly symbolic—an apparent sign of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s conquest of the political landscape and ability to reshape the Turkish nation in line with his wishes. He is currently campaigning for snap presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24 in which he could further cement his grip. Despite a surprisingly energetic opposition campaign, Erdogan remains the odds-on favorite. […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Four months after Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced he would resign, and two months after Abiy Ahmed was sworn in as his replacement, the pace of change in Ethiopia seems only to quicken. This week saw a dramatic shift in the government’s stance toward Eritrea, its neighbor and longtime foe, as well as significant political, economic and security reforms at home. On Tuesday, the government announced that it was finally ready to implement the terms of a peace […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the tense Group of Seven leaders’ summit and the implications of President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies on relations with America’s closest allies. For the Report, Max Radwin talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about Bolivia’s coca policy under President Evo Morales, which is meant to protect indigenous traditions but is accused by some critics of fueling the cocaine trade. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter […]