Articles

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.

Biden has said that he wants to take a more conciliatory approach with Iran, but the Iran-al-Qaida relationship makes that challenging.

Suddenly, Iran's ayatollahs are on the offensive once again.

[T] president has one unresolved China item on his desk that could be his administration's most consequential China policy yet: a formal finding, under the Genocide Convention, of genocide in Xinjiang.

[T]he Israel-Morocco deal should also be seen as a boon for the incoming Biden administration

For decades, America’s close military, diplomatic, economic, and other ties with Israel have generated vast benefits for both sides. At a time of such hopeful change but also serious challenge across the Middle East, it’s a relationship that each should nourish carefully, avoiding the unnecessary missteps that can cause significant damage.

Last month, in an about-face that was as astonishing as it was abrupt, Xi Jinping told Asian leaders that China is “actively considering” joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP)

Through last week's killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Israel was signaling to Iran's nuclear scientists that their chosen vocation could turn out to be downright hazardous to their health.

Iran’s deepening footprint in Syria represents what is arguably the most significant flashpoint in the Levant.

While pundits and policymakers in Washington lock horns over a new strategic direction to counter China, the Department of Defense (DoD) is quietly working to blunt the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) advance into the Pacific Ocean.

Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of historical discernment.

The news that Bahrain's foreign minister is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week highlights the predicament that president elect Joe Biden faces in the Middle East: he wants to restore a U.S. approach to the region that relies on increasingly out-of-date assumptions.

The long-term damage resulting from Armenia's miscalculations outlined are plain to see. While part of the damage is physical, even more significant is the mental damage: Armenia’s feeling of military superiority is now broken, and its feeling of isolation palpable.

The Kingdom of Morocco ranks prominently on the list of prospective peace partners.

How will a Biden administration handle the Middle East?

Since his Senate confirmation this summer, new United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO Michael Pack has come under fire for calling out his own organization for an array of glaring security shortfalls.

[T]he Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed earlier this Fall between NASA and the U.S. Space Force represents a major forward step in comprehensive national spacepower.

As the U.S.-China relationship grows increasingly confrontational, few issues have captured Washington's attention more than the egregious ongoing violations of human rights in Xinjiang.

The administration’s refugee policy will jeopardize America’s ability to secure the cooperation of local populations when, at some point in the future, the United States again must take military action.

With the U.S. election around the corner, the contours of a second term Trump Iran policy – or a first term Biden approach – are already coming into view.

Russian peacekeeping is not the solution

Can Washington parlay increasing negative views of China into a competitive strategy?

"Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group, "is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade."

The resumption of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan threatens a broader regional conflict that threatens Western interests. While America has paid growing attention to Central Asia, it has forgotten to do the same in the South Caucasus, the Western gateway to Central Asia.