Iran's impending entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian bloc that China and Russia lead, has great potential to limit U.S., Israeli and Western leeway in confronting Tehran's nuclear and hegemonic aspirations, sponsorship of international terrorism and efforts at regional de-stabilization.
When Moroccans went to the polls earlier this month to elect a new parliament, the result was a massive repudiation of Islamism – and a resounding affirmation of the North African nation's current geopolitical trajectory.
As the Taliban resurrects its Islamic Emirate, the United States is once again facing the likelihood of terrorist groups operating at will within Afghanistan.
[T]here’s another, less-recognized setback happening for the United States far south of the Rio Grande or the Sonora Desert: crumbling relationships with Latin American countries.
Despite the Biden administration’s desire to be rid of Afghanistan, now is not the time to disengage.
To change Beijing’s calculus, arm Taipei with missiles and turn the island into a ‘porcupine.’
...if America is not loyal to our friends, chances are that we will soon find ourselves without any.
It's official: Saudi Arabia has begun to seek other suitors.
No matter who wins, public opinion and the possibility of having to partner in a coalition government make it likely that the victor will take a more hawkish line.
Could the Communist Party be more clear that it does not keep its word?
In July, a U.N. panel of experts released a new report on global terrorism, with some alarming conclusions. In it, they noted that East and West Africa have been the world regions hardest hit by terrorism over the past year, and that terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria are fast becoming "an entrenched insurgency."
Beijing is trying to shape the academic and political conversation.
Beijing has been quick to throw its weight around on the world stage in recent years.
It is crucial that Washington seize every opportunity to trumpet U.S. leadership on the global stage and remind the world of China’s failure to behave as a “responsible stakeholder.”
By now, it's beyond question that the Biden administration's hasty, uncoordinated withdrawal from Afghanistan is nothing short of a debacle.
At the expense of American landowners, farmers and companies, Chinese corporations have been buying up valuable land for years.
Seeing Taliban convoys rolling down a highway might intimidate Afghans, but US defense planners should see them as targets begging to be destroyed.
A year ago this week, Israel and the United Arab Emirates made history when they agreed to formally normalize their diplomatic relations.
The Iranians are thirsty. In the past few weeks, thousands have taken to the streets in cities and towns throughout the Islamic Republic to protest the country's deepening hydrological crisis — and the Iranian regime's chronic mishandling of it.
For the second time in a half-decade, U.S. policy toward Iran is undergoing a profound redefinition, as the Biden administration abandons the "maximum pressure" of the Trump era in favor of a broad effort to reengage the Islamic Republic.
President Joe Biden’s China policy is a paradox of his own making.
The United States Space Force was established due to rising threats in space, a domain that is vital to U.S. national security and economic interests. Strategic competition among great power on Earth and in space is likely in the coming decades. Analyzes strategic competition among great powers to make predictions about future conflict in space.
As video of protests in Havana circulates on social media, many are wondering about Cuba's future. Why now? What's changed for everyday Cubans? And, most importantly, what do the protests mean for the island nation's communist government and its grip on power?
In late 2020, a Chinese submersible, the Fendouzhe, descended over 30,000 feet to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, home to the deepest point in the earth’s oceans, known as Challenger Deep.
President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met last month on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Berlin. The meeting was short on tangible results but long on symbolism, with Erdogan proclaiming that “there is no problem that cannot be resolved in Turkey-U.S. relations.”
History, they say, doesn’t really repeat itself, but it does sometimes rhyme.
The states, and America’s nonprofit and private sectors, must play a role, too.
A coming infrastructure conference could lay the groundwork for a new strategy in the region.
America must use diplomacy to convince its best friend that an injection of the famous British courage in the economic space is necessary for protecting the UK’s sovereignty, security, and values.
A more integrated and cohesive Central Asia that includes Afghanistan will do more than anything else in sight to render it stable and predictable.
Washington needs a long-term strategy to sideline the tech giant.
Last week, Iranians went to the polls to select a replacement for outgoing president Hassan Rouhani, who has served out his two terms in office.
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) dominance over global critical mineral supply chains presents one of the largest strategic vulnerabilities to the United States and her allies since the Arab oil embargo-triggered energy security crisis of the 1970s.
At his summit with Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland last week, President Biden pressed his Russian counterpart on a number of critical issues.
With Tehran making significant progress on the nuclear front, Washington and its European allies seem engaged in an increasingly desperate effort to revive the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran, mirroring the earlier eagerness that helped produce the problematic agreement in the first place.
Despite Chavez’s death in 2013, Venezuela remains a key Iranian ally—and a top partner in Tehran’s efforts to project power in the Western Hemisphere.
Next week, President Joe Biden will meet with Vladimir Putin in Geneva for his first head-of-state summit with the Russian leader.
Fifty-five House Democrats recently signed a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken arguing that the U.S. response to the protests, riots and national strikes that have taken place in Colombia in recent weeks must focus on the “unleashed” and “brutal response” of the Colombian National Police against protesters.
The United States, and its allies and partners, have an opportunity in Ukraine to demonstrate their commitment to the existing international order, and thereby to deter potential aggressors long before military force is required.
Whatever the future holds for one of America’s most complicated bilateral relationships, better that Biden try and shape Erdogan’s foreign policy forays to America’s advantage, rather than refight old battles.
For most of the world, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre recalls familiar yet macabre vignettes of hopeful students and the iron tanks that crushed them, along with their cries for freedom. In China, however, there is nothing to recall on June 4th because, as far as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is concerned, nothing happened.
Space should not be seen as a bill to pay, but rather as an investment that generates tangible returns.
A growing number of authoritarian regimes are turning to technology in their efforts to demolish trust in democratic principles and institutions.
Predictably, the latest violence in the Middle East has spawned a slew of theories about the reasons for renewed hostilities between Israel and Gaza.
These games offer an opportunity for America’s public and private sectors to make a powerful statement on human rights.
Just how influential is America's outreach to the Iranian people?
A third of a year into its tenure, the new White House appears to be pulling out all the stops in its efforts to reengage with Tehran, and to demolish the "maximum pressure" policy of its predecessor in the process.
Hamas and Iranian rockets threaten Arab goals as much as the Jewish state.
If President Biden truly believes he and the United States deserve to lead the democracies of the world, then he must lead in engaging Russia.
The report comes as Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza erect more barriers to peace with Israel, and as they themselves degrade the human rights of the Palestinian people.
As the Biden administration confronts China’s growing assertiveness, the challenges confronting the smallest Pacific Islands should be front of mind.
More than three months into its tenure, the Biden administration has made Iran the focal point of its Mideast policy, and seems intent on reviving the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, despite that agreement’s numerous flaws.
Washington’s instinctual response to compete with the Belt and Road Initiative dollar-for-dollar is a losing proposition that plays into China’s long game. But with an offensive framework, American policymakers could turn the tables and transform the BRI into an albatross for the Communist Party.
Get ready. "Great power competition" is coming to the Maghreb.
What drives Iran’s new activism in Africa? Moroccan officials point to a number of factors. The first is strategic opportunism, as the African continent grows in global economic and political significance.
A shift in policy is warranted because of the changes taking place in Moscow.
It makes sense that the Biden team would seek to repair relations with Russia, but this may also be perceived as weakness on the part of the White House.
What a difference a few months can make.
JFK lacked the self-confidence to stare down the military and intelligence chiefs who thrust a reckless military plan on him, but he learned from the mistake and grew into a far more seasoned global leader.
China exploits ambiguity at sea, and the service could be a vital part of the effort to keep the peace.
In dealing with Mohammed bin Salman, the United States faces a familiar choice: continue to work with him or press for his ouster as crown prince.
The female cadres of ISIS are now poised to expand as a result of a new generation of extremists now being incubated in Syria’s assorted refugees camps.
The Biden administration, like its predecessor, is poised to withdraw the remaining American troops from Afghanistan — at great cost to both its own and its allies’ interests.
China's geopolitical ambitions in the Middle East took a giant leap forward over the weekend, when Chinese and Iranian officials convened in Tehran to formally sign a massive new cooperation agreement.
The Biden administration is going to need a coordinated, multifaceted plan to counter the changing shape of the Belt and Road Initiative if it means to truly engage in great-power competition with Beijing.
The United States and China show growing signs of entering a long-term cold war, strikingly similar to the U.S.-Soviet cold war of decades past...
China’s elite are nervous about the coming succession crisis around Xi Jinping.
Evidence mounts that the captive population that the ayatollahs control is seeking change
Iranians are largely pro-Western and are subjugated by an anti-American regime, their interests and those of the United States align in important and, as yet, untapped ways.
The Biden administration has an opportunity to push back against China’s ambitions in the Antarctic and affirm the international institutions that it has promised to revive.
From the outset of the Biden administration, there has been widespread speculation about the future of America's China policy.
Something profound is taking shape inside Iran. Mere months from the country's next presidential election, and in the midst of a U.S. push for reengagement with its clerical regime, recent days have seen new signs of life from—and coordination among—Iran's notoriously fragmented opposition.
The question now is whether, as the ICC seeks to assume more power and expand its jurisdictional authority, its upcoming probe will generate more unwarranted slanders against the Jewish state.
U.S. territories and possessions in the Pacific and the Caribbean find themselves on the front lines of Beijing's malign influence, economic predation, and military ambitions.
Since the very start of President Biden’s term in office, speculation has swirled about whether his administration — which is now busy reshaping U.S. policy toward the Middle East and Europe — will stay the course when it comes to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Just weeks into its tenure, the Biden administration is already executing a profound pivot in the Middle East.
Washington should have every interest in nurturing Riyadh’s current course, and ample reason to fear the potential consequences of nudging it in the opposite direction.
In mid-January, the White House declassified the "United States Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific," a document which had guided U.S. policy toward the region over the past several years
Iran is "at least two years" away from developing a nuclear weapon.
When it comes to China, President Joe Biden has proven himself something of a wild card.
No matter how warm relations between Washington and Delhi become, history shows that some level of non-alignment will always be part of India’s policies.
VOA can play a crucial role in outreach to the Iranian people. But the White House should get serious about fixing its problems.
Last week, five Pacific islands countries withdrew from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), the region’s premier multilateral organization.
The Pacific Island Forum is in danger of breaking apart and may only make great power tensions with China worse.
The Space Force is an indispensable part of that forward-looking vision; it represents a key instrument of American technological leadership and diplomacy.
A year into the coronavirus, the progression of the disease in the Middle East is decidedly mixed. Some countries, such the nations of the GCC, have weathered the pandemic comparatively well as a result of what scholars have termed "authoritarian management." Other nations, however, have been profoundly ravaged by the illness.
Make no mistake. Whatever they might proclaim publicly, Iran's leaders are desperate for a new diplomatic agreement with the West.