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A pillar of Indonesian President-elect Joko Widodo’s campaign was an emphasis on strengthening the country’s identity as a “maritime nation” and becoming what he called a “global maritime nexus.” By giving his acceptance speech the night the official election results were announced onboard a traditional schooner in Jakarta’s main port, Jokowi, as he is universally known, demonstrated the importance he attaches to this vision, which was also prominent in his campaign’s 41-page “Vision Mission” statement. In comments since the election in July, Jokowi has called for the establishment of a maritime ministry and even waded into international waters by saying […]

IRBIL, Iraq—Syria’s moderate rebels are in trouble. Nearly encircled in their main bastion of Aleppo by the forces of Bashar al-Assad’s government and under pressure by Islamic State fighters, they are also weakened by internal rifts and little external support. Yet they are still fighting back, and the strength of their enemies may be exaggerated. The most immediate threat is coming from militants of the Islamic State—also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS—emboldened by their looting of American weaponry earlier this summer and an influx of Sunni fighters in Iraq. The Islamic State recently took […]

Luis Otsuka, the president of a federation of small-scale gold miners in Peru’s Madre de Dios region called FEDAMIN, is one of tens of thousands of miners who are struggling to continue their lucrative activity in the face of a government initiative to reign in illegal mining. “In 1987, the government gave me a loan to purchase mining equipment. Now the government wants to destroy that same machinery,” he says. Otsuka and his fellow miners have spent much of the past year protesting a government crackdown on illegal mining and new legislation regulating legal mining. Over the past decade, a […]

Last month, Malawian President Peter Mutharika reaffirmed his country’s claim to Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa, fueling Malawi’s ongoing dispute with Tanzania over access rights to the lake. In an email interview, Aditi Lalbahadur, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, discussed Malawi and Tanzania’s long and unresolved territorial fight. WPR: What is the history of Malawi and Tanzania’s competing claims to Lake Nyasa? Aditi Lalbahadur: The border dispute between Malawi and Tanzania stems as far back as independence in these countries. Evidence suggests that the issue was raised in several parliamentary sessions in Tanzania and […]

Despite the recent prominence given to the issue of NATO’s membership enlargement, the alliance seems destined for at least the next few years to focus on broadening and deepening its partnerships with nonmember countries and other international institutions. NATO has developed an extensive partnership program since the Cold War and now has some two dozen official national partners, while developing ties with more countries as well as international institutions. Partners contribute capabilities, money and legitimacy to NATO activities. They have provided thousands of ground troops to NATO operations in Afghanistan and the Balkans, air capabilities in Libya and support to […]