Bollywood has long played a significant nation-building role in India. But over the past decade, both onscreen and off, it has increasingly fed into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s particular brand of nation-building, by both reinforcing anti-Muslim sentiment and engaging in Hindu-nationalist revisionist history.
To become Malaysia’s prime minister after last year’s general elections, Anwar Ibrahim was forced to form a government with the scandal-tainted UMNO party. Though perplexing given Anwar’s reformist agenda, the coalition was considered the least bad option. But looking ahead, he might not be able to take UMNO’s support for granted.
Vietnam’s years-long anti-corruption drive has reached the upper echelons of government as a result of prominent pandemic-related scandals. A series of recent high-profile resignations has led some to wonder where the campaign might lead next and how dramatically it will impact the country’s international positioning.
Now that Xi Jinping has cemented his position as the unrivalled leader of China, the country’s foreign policy increasingly reflects his personality: insecure, controlling and aggressive. This is apparent in the uncompromising vision for building a 21st-century PLA that Xi laid out at last year’s Party Congress.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gotten off to a difficult start. The weeks since his Cabinet was formed saw the worst escalation in violence between Palestinians and Israelis since 2008. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s proposed reforms to the judiciary have been met with intense protests.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine combined with the geopolitical instability it caused made 2022 a great year to be an oil major. But while most oil producers across the globe reaped profits, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex struggled financially and enters 2023 with questions about its long-term viability hanging over it.
Pope Francis is in the final stretch of a six-day trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan that was framed as an opportunity to bring more international attention to the many challenges faced by the two neighbors and to deliver a message of peace, reconciliation and an end to conflict in the two countries.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been increasingly emboldened in managing ties with Moscow. But while Kazakhstan has never shown more resolve in seeking to reset its relationship with Russia, the government’s relations with the country’s population have never seemed more tenuous.
Many in Ukraine watched the Czech presidential election closely as a bellwether for whether European public opinion would continue to support the delivery of military aid to Kyiv. The success of Petr Pavel over far-right populist Andrej Babis signaled the country’s desire to stick by its NATO allies.
The crisis in Peru shows no sign of easing. With the death toll climbing, protesters have now reached the capital. Meanwhile, political leaders are struggling to come to an agreement about a way out of a violent showdown that is crippling the economy, worsening poverty and threatening the survival of Peru’s democracy.
It’s hard to say what impact Cyprus’ upcoming presidential election will have on reunification, as the issue has received little attention throughout the campaign. There was a time when the “Cyprus Problem” dominated Greek Cypriot politics. But today, the political debate tends to be more focused on domestic issues.
The Labour Party is likely to win the U.K.’s next election, which must be held no later than December 2024. It might take years before efforts to tackle the party’s policy priorities yield visible outcomes. But Brexit is a major area where swift action might be matched by results in Starmer’s first 100 days in power.
Jacinda Ardern’s surprise exit from New Zealand politics has ushered in a new prime minister, Chris Hipkins. Despite the rather abrupt leadership change, Wellington is unlikely to make wholesale changes to its foreign policy, particularly when it comes to the most sensitive topic on New Zealand’s foreign affairs agenda: China.
Lebanon’s ongoing political and economic crises took more dramatic turns last week, beginning with a sit-in inside parliament by some of the body’s members to protest the failure to elect a president, and continuing with extraordinary developments linked to the stalled inquiry into the August 2020 Beirut Port explosion.