Since taking office last year, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has worked to improve ties with both the U.S. and China, in part by trying to focus their energies on managing North Korea. But pressure is now mounting on Seoul to clarify where it stands in terms of its readiness to help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
Sexual assault and violence within the U.S. military has become the focus of heightened attention in recent years, in part due to a series of high-profile cases. But despite recent efforts to address the problem, sexual assault in the military continues to rise, raising a number of issues from the standpoint of civil-military relations.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has largely chosen caution over confrontation in Rome’s foreign policy. But when it comes to Italy’s position on the war in Ukraine, and by extension its bilateral relationship with Russia, her administration’s emphasis on continuity seems to be diverging from domestic public opinion.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, signed a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership” between the two countries late last year. But the display of diplomatic pomp at the announcement obscured the complex and often fractious partnership between the two countries.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and a delegation of government officials recently met with their Moroccan counterparts for the first time in eight years, in an effort to mend relations amid tensions over territorial issues and migration. But the timing of the summit was awkward, due to concerns over Morocco’s human rights record.
The recent launch of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies, or iCET, by India and the U.S. is a function of the changing balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, reflecting both sides’ concerns over China’s emergence as a regional and global power. But the direction and end goals of the partnership remain unclear.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 upended international politics, and seriously affected China’s strategic calculations. Beijing is now scrambling to limit the fallout of the conflict on its core strategic and economic interests, and with the prospects of a clear Russian victory waning by the day, China faces a dilemma.