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On April 30, Matteo Renzi showed that rumors of his political demise were greatly exaggerated. Italy’s former prime minister found his career on the rocks following a humiliation in December, when the constitutional referendum he backed was defeated. But he proved that he could still command the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of supporters of the Democratic Party, or PD, by winning a convincing victory in the party leadership primaries. Nearly 2 million people voted—less than in previous contests, but still an impressive figure, especially since the vote coincided with a holiday weekend. Almost 70 percent cast a ballot for […]

Emmanuel Macron has never said anything noteworthy about the United Nations. But his victory in this weekend’s French presidential election increases the chances that France and Europe still have a role to play in defending international cooperation. It is probable that the three main European powers—Britain, France and Germany—will be active supporters of the U.N. and other multilateral bodies for at least the rest of this decade. They may be able to offset, at least in part, the Trump administration’s retreat from multilateralism. Just a few months ago, it would have been hard to make even this guardedly optimistic statement […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Violence in Somalia this week killed a U.S. Navy SEAL participating in a counterterrorism operation as well as the youngest member of the president’s Cabinet, who was reportedly shot by bodyguards of the country’s auditor general. U.S. Africa Command said Friday that the U.S. service member—the first to die in Somalia since 1993—was killed and two others wounded during a raid Thursday targeting the al-Shabab extremist group near the town of Barii, 40 miles west of the capital, Mogadishu. The […]

Wednesday’s vicious presidential debate ahead of Sunday’s election in France did little to improve the public image of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. In a flurry of factually dubious assertions about her centrist opponent, Emmanuel Macron, she struggled to offer a clear political platform, instead railing against free trade and demonizing Muslims. Her dismal performance, coupled with endorsements for Macron from across France’s political spectrum, is likely to seal her defeat come Sunday. But Le Pen and her movement will remain relevant for French politics. The first round of the election sidelined France’s mainstream parties from the presidential runoff in […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about China’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Last month, the U.K. inaugurated the first freight train service to China—a 17-day, 7,500-mile journey from Essex to Zhejiang province. A cargo route was earlier established linking China and Spain. The milestones are reminders of Chinese ambitions for European involvement in its One Belt, One Road initiative. In an email interview, Andrew Small, senior trans-Atlantic fellow with the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund of […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the potential for Donald Trump to succeed where so many other U.S. presidents have failed in brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. For the Report, Jeffrey Smith and David Rice talk with Peter Dörrie about the need to balance justice with reconciliation as Gambia moves on from more than two decades of rule by brutal dictator Yahya Jammeh. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles: To Ensure Its Democratic Transition, Gambia Will Need Justice—and Reconciliation Can Abbas Use His White House Visit to Preserve […]

After spending the past few months skeptical of reviving the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from in January just after he took office, Japan has changed tack and is now looking to press ahead on finalizing the major Pacific Rim trade deal with the 10 other signatory states. The about-face on the TPP by Japan, which is the largest remaining economy in the deal, came ahead of a critical meeting this week of the signatories, known as the TPP-11, looking for a path forward without the United States. The meeting, held in Toronto, was […]

U.S. President Donald Trump probably does not relish taking on a problem like the conflict in Afghanistan. It is a “wicked” problem, intricate and almost incomprehensibly complex, with a large and growing cast of participants playing a role or at least having a stake. Inside Afghanistan there is a mesh of actors with clashing, often incompatible goals. Outside the country a solution depends on Pakistan, which deeply fears India and has its own growing jihadi problem. Russia and the self-styled Islamic State, while late to the conflict, are now involved and muddling things even further. But despite all this, Trump […]

In 2015, Cote d’Ivoire’s president, Alassane Ouattara, coasted to re-election, scoring a landslide win over a divided opposition. In 2016, he basked in Cote d’Ivoire’s designation by the International Monetary Fund as Africa’s fastest-growing economy. That year also saw the adoption of a new constitution that Ouattara hoped would help the country definitively turn the page on a prolonged era of crisis and conflict. This year, by contrast, is proving to be much more difficult. Already, 2017 has brought a series of mutinies by the security forces as well as a large-scale strike in the public sector. All the while, […]

Observers around the world have found many of the statements coming out of the White House in recent days deeply unsettling. That is nothing new in the era of President Donald Trump. But within the overall stream of Trump’s controversial pronouncements, there is one current that contains important clues about what lies ahead in his presidency. Since taking office little more than 100 days ago, Trump has reversed course on countless issues, including major matters of foreign policy. But he has remained remarkably consistent in his praise of authoritarian leaders. It has become indisputable that respect for strongmen is a […]

Having survived the grueling U.S. presidential campaign largely unscathed by any vitriol from Donald Trump, India was cautiously optimistic that bilateral relations under a Trump administration would advance without distraction or controversy. Positive initial phone calls between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, free of the dust-ups of some of Trump’s other engagements with world leaders, raised expectations further. A little more than 100 days in, the Trump administration has yet to clarify or finalize any changes in U.S. policy toward India or name a new ambassador to New Delhi. But Trump may have already dashed India’s hopes with […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. Last Friday, lawmakers in Montenegro voted 46-0 to ratify the country’s accession to NATO. However, dozens of pro-Russia lawmakers boycotted the vote, underscoring the political obstacles that have slowed Montenegro’s accession process. In an email interview, Filip Ejdus, an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade and a research fellow at the University of Bristol, explains how that process unfolded. WPR: Why and for how long has Montenegro sought to join NATO, and what have been the biggest challenges […]

Uganda recently began withdrawing troops from the Central African Republic that had been tasked with hunting Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group. Kony founded the LRA in 1987 in northern Uganda, and his fighters became notorious for abducting children and forcing them to serve as soldiers and sex slaves. The rebel leader remains at large, but Uganda’s military recently said the group’s “means of making war against Uganda have been degraded” and that LRA commanders had “been killed, captured or surrendered.” Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, offered a similar […]

On Barack Obama’s first day in office as U.S. president in 2009, he called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to discuss the war being waged at the time in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. The call came just two years after a devastating Palestinian civil war in which Hamas—the Islamist group that the United States, Israel and the European Union all designate as a terrorist organization—had expelled Abbas’ Fatah-led Palestinian Authority from Gaza. Back in 2009, in the midst of what the Israelis called Operation Cast Lead, Hamas was surging in popularity among Palestinians. For many in […]

More than 100 days into Donald Trump’s term in office, a good deal of uncertainty still surrounds the new president’s approach to foreign policy, mainly due to his unpredictable temperament. Other things have become clearer, though. Trump might be able to change the U.S. presidency; in some ways he already has. By contrast, the world and the international order that governs it have proven more stubborn in their resistance to being refashioned, as has the architecture of alliances, partnerships and rivalries that structure U.S. foreign policy. Gravity, it seems, still exists, and it exercises its pull on everyone, even those […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about China’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In January, Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi started his annual Africa tour with a stop in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo—a sign of the importance Beijing places on Madagascar’s role in the One Belt, One Road initiative. Last month, during Malagasy President Hery Rajaonarimampianina’s state visit to Beijing, the two countries signed several agreements to accelerate Chinese investment in energy, aviation, transportation, ports and airport construction. In an […]

ASUNCION, Paraguay—A month after rioters set fire to Paraguay’s Congress, President Horacio Cartes has abandoned his contentious plans to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term in 2018. But a corrupt party system and factionalism among Paraguay’s elites pose a greater threat to representative government in one of the poorest countries in South America. On April 26, the lower house of Paraguay’s legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, rejected a bill to amend the country’s constitution to allow former and current presidents to run again. Nine days earlier, Cartes, a tobacco magnate who is one of […]