In-Depth Archive

In December 2019, a new Argentine president was sworn in amid considerable upheaval, promising to wrest the country from its endless cycles of boom and bust. His predecessor’s efforts to reform the economy and finally unleash the country’s great potential had to come to naught. On almost every economic indicator, Argentina was actually worse off than when he had taken office four years before and, once again, the country faced the dreaded specter of foreign debt default. Though that brief summary refers to the presidential transition from Mauricio Macri to Alberto Fernandez, change the names and dates and this could […]

July 1 is an ominous day for Palestinians, when Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is set to leap forward into formal annexation. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held onto his office by forging a power-sharing agreement with his political rival, Benny Gantz, that gave him the authority he needed to deliver on his biggest campaign promise: unilaterally annexing Israel’s settlements in the West Bank as soon as next month. The plans for annexation prompted a reckoning in Ramallah, where President Mahmoud Abbas announced last month that the Palestinian Authority would no longer coordinate with Israel on security […]

It is too soon to tell how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect international security. Whether it will provide opportunities for prolonged peace or create conditions for new rivalries and disputes depends on how long the pandemic lasts, how the world moves forward from bungled initial responses and how quickly countries recover from the virus’s societal and economic fallout. But already, the pandemic is exposing and accelerating trends that have made the world more vulnerable to international conflict. That may be surprising, since before the outbreak, most statistics indicated that, on the whole, the world had never been better. People were […]

In early May, a high-speed boat pulled alongside the Rio Mitong, a Panama-flagged cargo vessel, just off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Using ladders to board the ship, a group of assailants kidnapped two crew members, taking them back to the shore, where they subsequently held them for ransom. Another ship was reportedly attacked that same night, elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea. These attacks are just two among many recent incidents in this vast and strategically significant body of water, where armed robbery, piracy and kidnappings at sea have escalated in recent years. Though piracy overall has decreased globally, […]

Ha Abia is a sprawling, dusty neighborhood on the outskirts of Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. Bisected by the main highway heading south from the city, it flashes past in a blur of roadside taverns, small grocery stores, street vendors and the ubiquitous honking of local taxis. Since 1998, it has been the political home of Lesotho’s two-time prime minister, Thomas Motsoahae Thabane. In the past year, Thabane has faced growing political opposition, which came to a head in April, when he was charged in connection with his ex-wife’s murder in 2017. Thabane tried for weeks to negotiate a deal […]