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Historians and politicians will mine the astonishing 2016 U.S. election for years to come, drawing countless lessons about voter dissatisfaction, political acrimony and resistance to social change, among many other mostly domestic problems brought to the surface by the tumultuous campaign. But one of the unexpected mileposts marked by America’s electoral exercise this year lies in the use of a new weapon in global power politics: weaponized social media as an aggressive tool of foreign policy. If war is politics by other means, as the 19th-century military strategist Carl Von Clausewitz famously said, the U.S. election demonstrated that in the […]

On Oct. 30, the European Union and Canada finally signed a free trade deal that was delayed after Belgium’s majority French-speaking region of Wallonia threatened to veto it. But the last-minute drama behind the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, has many observers doubting the future of the EU’s free trade policy. Two weeks before the trade deal was due to be signed, the Walloon parliament, one of five regional parliaments in Belgium, vetoed it, blocking Prime Minister Charles Michel from signing the agreement. Walloon President Paul Magnette, who represents a population of just 3.5 million, objected to […]

Does Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States signal an existential crisis for the liberal internationalist global order? Will it usher in a period of heightened barriers to trade and dialogue, with one-sided ultimatums replacing diplomatic negotiations and compromise? Will the U.S.-backed security architectures in Europe and Asia crumble into the kind of epochal chaos currently on display in the Middle East? It is easy at times like these to fall prey to panic and despair—to believe, in essence, one’s own campaign rhetoric. But while all of the above scenarios remain possible, for now they are off in […]

Prolonged and contentious trade negotiations between the European Union and different regions of Africa have been put back into the spotlight in recent months. Despite negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements, or EPAs, with the EU, several key African states have failed to sign them. Britain’s referendum on leaving the EU last June has added an extra dimension of uncertainty to the situation. This threatens to derail years of trade talks between Europe and Africa, which changed significantly with the signing of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000 between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, or ACP countries. […]

The small developing nations dotting the Caribbean have recently become sites for massive amounts of foreign aid from China. Large Chinese-built infrastructure projects and millions in investments have taken their place next to sun-splashed tourists, sprawling resorts and bustling cruise ports. Earlier this year, thousands of Chinese workers flocked to Jamaica to complete a $730 million mega-highway that cuts through the heart of the island, shaving hours off typical tourist commutes. In Barbados, Chinese officials have pledged tens of millions of dollars to restore gymnasiums, renovate historic sites, and dock a goodwill hospital ship in the capital, Bridgetown, to provide […]

When French authorities dismantled the migrant camp in Calais known as the Jungle in late October, many asked what would happen to the encampment’s 9,000 residents. The answer was not long in coming: Rather than relocating to government-run shelters, many simply swelled the ranks of France’s other migrant encampments that had until now escaped the glare of international press coverage. Calais is far from being the only site of France’s migrant crisis. Since June 2015, French police have demolished some 30 makeshift encampments—home to thousands of migrants, primarily from Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Sudan—in Paris. But the crisis worsened following the […]

CHISINAU, Moldova—Most headlines about Moldova would have you believe this former Soviet republic of 3.5 million people is torn between East and West, the impoverished victim of a battle for influence on the European Union’s doorstep that pits Brussels against Moscow. To be sure, geopolitics is a major part of the picture. The two candidates in the ongoing presidential election here prove it: Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian socialist, says he wants to see Moldova’s hard-fought Association Agreement with the EU torn up, while Harvard-trained economist Maia Sandu pledges to support the country’s pro-European course. Since neither secured a majority in […]

As the U.S. presidential campaign finally wraps up, the Middle East is taking away some very negative messages about American culture that will diminish America’s ability to be a model for good governance and to influence outcomes in the region. Iran’s media has even used a broadcast of the U.S. presidential debates to validate the regime narrative of America’s corruption and weak moral values, and Iran’s own preference for strict religious codes of conduct. But Arab states working to avoid extremism and authoritarianism still seek virtue in the American experience, even if they are not yet ready to embrace democracy […]

Jacob Berry is searching for any sign he can return to the home in Darfur he fled 13 years ago. In 2003, near the outset of the ongoing conflict in Darfur, a Khartoum-backed militia attacked Berry’s village. In their efforts to root out a rebel movement, government troops and state-supported fighters have committed countless targeted atrocities against civilians, and Berry’s village was not spared. Houses were set alight, residents scattered, and an unknown number of people killed, including his father and brother. Berry, then 15, fled all the way to Libya’s Mediterranean coast, before boarding a boat for Alexandria, Egypt. […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. The Canadian Space Agency and the University of Calgary recently announced plans to study how long-duration space missions affect astronauts’ brains, starting in 2018. In an email interview, Charity Weeden, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, discusses Canada’s space program. WPR: What are Canada’s space capabilities, in terms of its domestic public and private space-industrial complex, and who are its major international partners, in terms of space diplomacy and commercial ties? Charity Weeden: Canada has a 54-year history […]

Voting has finally begun for the upper and lower houses of Somalia’s Federal Parliament after several delays. While both houses are due to elect a new president on Nov. 30, security and logistical challenges mean the presidential election is also likely to be postponed. In an email interview, Kenneth Menkhaus, a professor at Davidson College, discusses Somalia’s elections. WPR: How are Somalia’s elections structured, in terms of eligible voters, candidates, political parties and affiliation, and what are the major blocs or factions contesting the election? Kenneth Menkhaus: Somalia’s current elections are most accurately described as a form of indirect consociational […]

Russia is planning to confront the next U.S. president with the dilemma of how to manage a bloody defeat in Syria on his or her first day in office: As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hurtle around America looking for last-minute votes, Moscow has been positioning its forces for a final assault on Aleppo. Despite pushes by rebel forces to gain ground, there is a very high chance that the Russians and their Syrians allies will secure total control of the city before the next president’s inauguration. Moscow is likely to dismiss residual efforts by the Obama administration, and other […]

In Istanbul last month, Turkey and Russia signed a strategic agreement for a stalled gas pipeline known as Turkish Stream. Running under the Black Sea to Turkey and then on to Greece, the pipeline would offer Russia a way to sell gas to Europe that bypasses existing pipelines in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine. The Turkish Stream agreement seems like the culmination of a Turkish-Russian rapprochement that has been underway since the spring, as both countries tried to repair relations after Turkey downed a Russian fighter along the Syrian border nearly a year ago. First proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin […]

When Dwight Eisenhower took office as president in January 1953, he was deeply concerned about the trajectory of America’s security strategy. Much had changed in the years leading up to his election the previous November, as hopes that the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and China—would collaboratively manage global security were dashed by the emergence of the Cold War. By the time Eisenhower moved into the White House, no one doubted that containing the Soviet Union was America’s most pressing strategic task. What worried him was how to […]

When Tunisians overthrew dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, they kicked off a wave of popular uprisings throughout the Middle East and spurred a jubilant sense of unity at home. But for champions of women’s rights in the country, that jubilation was soon replaced by a sense of dread over what might happen to those rights as Islamist conservatism began to take hold. While Ben Ali’s two decades in power were marked by corruption, human rights abuses and tight restrictions on free speech and political opposition, his regime did preserve the secular foundations of Tunisia’s strong women’s rights legislation, […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the African exodus from the International Criminal Court, Japan’s relationship with the Philippines, and the U.S. presidential election. For the Report, Sarah Kendzior joins Peter Dörrie to talk about Uzbekistan after the death of President Islam Karimov. Listen:Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles on WPR: An African Exodus From the ICC Shows How the Court Sealed Its Own Fate Can Japan Play the Mediator Amid Strained U.S.-Philippine Ties? The Populist Revolt That Propelled Trump Won’t Fade Away If He Loses The Death of […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. Last week, two bills were introduced in the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives that would establish a space development program and a Philippine Space Agency. The legislation has been well received, but it is unknown when lawmakers will vote on the bills. In an email interview, Rogel Mari Sese, a program leader at the National SPACE Development Program, the government agency working to establish a space agency, discusses the Philippines’ space program. WPR: What are the Philippines’ space capabilities, […]