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The Ulchi Freedom Shield Cuts: Why Did the US Rattle Its Most Important Asian Ally?
When a US president scales back military exercises with a key Pacific ally hours before they begin, and offers two contradictory reasons for doing...
The Patriot Problem: America Can’t Build Missiles Fast Enough
On July 23, Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians that Raytheon wanted to help produce Patriot interceptors on Ukrainian-linked lines. Five days later, Lockheed Martin signed...
A Closer Look at Iran’s Hardliner-Reform Divide
The hardliner–pragmatist divide is a useful analytical framework for understanding the main disagreement over the war, but the reality of power within the Islamic...
Why Is Trump Angrier at Oman Than at Iran Right Now?
The threat reveals less about Oman and far more about how comprehensively the Iran war has gone off script for an administration that promised...
Ceuta and Melilla: A Colonial Legacy in a Changing Strategic Geography
Recent events in Ceuta have revived a debate that many had long regarded as little more than a historical dispute. That interpretation, however, fails...
From Trade Giant to Strategic Actor: Rebuilding Europe’s Economic Statecraft
As the era of frictionless globalization gives way to systemic warfare, the European Union finds itself trapped in an institutional paradox: it remains a...
Beijing’s Coalition of Drills: How China Is Renting Normalcy in Contested Waters
By chaining bilateral naval exercises across a widening circle of partners — Russia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and now Indonesia — Beijing is not...
From Asia to Africa: Lessons on How to Build Regional Mineral Value Chains
The idea that African nations must process their minerals at home has gained increased policy traction, and for good reason. After decades of exporting...
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s December Gamble
On 11 December, Frank Gehry's nine metallic cones will open to the public on the western tip of Saadiyat Island, twenty years after the...
China and Russia Are Pressuring Japan on Two Fronts. Is a Pacific Pincer Taking Shape?
Putin's Kuril landing is not a bilateral Russia-Japan sovereignty dispute. It is the northern half of a coordinated Sino-Russian pressure campaign on Tokyo —...