The Chinese Communist Party’s national congress kicks off this weekend, with uncertainty surrounding all but one of the anticipated outcomes: Xi Jinping is expected to be renamed party chairman for a third term. Any other questions have been subordinated to the overriding through-line of Chinese politics these days: What will Xi do?
Two gatherings of international institutions this week—the IMF and World Bank’s annual meeting and a U.N. dialogue with the African Union—have been dominated by the global economic crisis. But many African governments and citizens regard multilateral organizations like these as missing in action regarding their major challenges.
The Nobel Peace Prize committee’s flawed decisions over the years have contributed to list after list of “the worst Nobel laureates,” a phenomenon that even the prize committee itself has acknowledged. Despite all these unforced errors and shortcomings, however, the Nobel Peace Prize matters and should still be given.
In July and September, Albania suffered two cyberattacks attributed by the U.S. to Iranian state cyber actors. But Albania is not Iran’s first victim. Among the world’s cyber powers, the Iranians have been among the most aggressive in using hacking for coercion. And while still relatively unskilled, Iran is a dangerous cyber actor.
NATO defense ministers pledged more air defense systems for Ukraine and strongly condemned Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian civilians in missile attacks in response to the bombing of a bridge in Crimea last week. But Kyiv continues to complain that some EU countries are not doing enough to deliver military aid quickly enough.
As European countries prepared for a sharp drop in natural gas supplies and an impending energy crisis, the Netherlands announced it would slash production at one of the world’s largest natural gas fields. The announcement reflects the competing priorities across Europe, pitting climate goals against the energy crisis.
Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied areas in Ukraine would appear to turn the U.N. Charter on its head, prompting some observers to wonder whether it has outlived its usefulness. In fact, however, the charter is working exactly as was envisioned, and perhaps even better than its framers hoped, for three reasons.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued new regulations restricting the sale of semiconductors and cutting-edge chip-making equipment to China. For while the implementation of these far-reaching measures will require international cooperation, Beijing’s technology ambitions are still set to hit rougher waters.
Between October 2021 and August 2022, U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border took undocumented migrants into custody more than 2 million times—a record number that has generated nonstop commentary about a “border crisis.” But the numbers fail to convey a dramatic shift in the migrant population over the past nine years.
The scale of the military effort in support of Ukraine’s struggle for survival has provided stark evidence of how distorted U.S. and European defense priorities have been over the past two decades. The war in Ukraine has served as a reminder that the U.S. and Europe must fundamentally reassess how they prepare for war.
Some observers have suggested that celebrities using their status to catalyze political involvement by their fans represents a new kind of celebrity activism, with more of an emphasis on inspiring action than taking action. But is that the case? And can celebrity activists, in inspiring such action, actually make a difference?
OPEC+ announced last week that it will cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day starting in November, driving up prices globally. The U.S. responded by framing the cuts to oil production as a nakedly self-serving move that will benefit Russia, singling out Saudi Arabia as the ringleader of that collective effort.
Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is favored to win the 2022 presidential election and return to the office he held between 2003 and 2010. But despite Lula’s pledge to prioritize relations with Africa as he did in his first stint in office, a return to the heydays of the 2000s is a long shot.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked an opportunity for Germany and Poland to converge around their shared interests in the face of a common threat. But developments since then have resurfaced the many lingering questions regarding the two countries’ differences, which often reflect broader divides across the continent.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s pet project, the European Political Community, held its inaugural summit in Prague, Czech Republic, this week. The gathering marked a diplomatic success for Macron, who had floated the idea of a forum comprising all of Europe’s democracies, both inside and outside the European Union, back in May.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba began a 10-day visit across Africa this week that was billed as an attempt to “better explain Ukraine.” It’s a welcome change of pace from Kyiv, whose engagement with Africa amid the war has consisted of diplomatic improprieties and unfamiliarity with African diplomatic positions.
Russia unleashing the destructive power of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would be catastrophic, but not solely because of the physical damage the weapon would cause. Instead, Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would be catastrophic because it would cause us to enter a new world, one transformed in three permanent ways.