Today’s Central Asian reformers are picking up and reviving neglected approaches to politics and society that Islam’s Golden Age turned its back on a millennium ago. They do so as Muslim believers or at least as officials respectful of Islam.
Over the past several years, China's information warfare capabilities have grown by leaps and bounds as Beijing has tapped into the disinformation expertise of its longstanding strategic partner, Russia.
But the most immediate target of Chinese messaging remains Taiwan. As officials and experts there made clear on a recent trip, the People's Republic of China's informational assault is changing—and intensifying.
The Trump administration’s success in brokering the Armenia-Azerbaijan deal demonstrates what’s possible when the United States engages seriously in the region. As the TRIPP corridor begins development, American policymakers would do well to look beyond immediate economic opportunities to the strategic landscape taking shape around them. The Caucasus is no longer Russia’s exclusive domain. The South has transformed. The North may follow, with consequences extending far beyond Russia’s borders.
The taps are running dry in Tehran. Iran's capital is now experiencing a massive and deepening water shortage. After months of drought and scorching heat, the five reservoirs feeding the city of more than 10 million are mostly empty.
In a quiet room high in the Himalayas, I sat with a monarch attempting something almost unseen in our time: the peaceful reinvention of a nation. For hours, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck guided me through maps, water tables, demographic curves, and the architectural outlines of a city not yet built but already alive in his imagination. He spoke with the calm force of a man who knows how vulnerable small states can be in an unforgiving century – and how rare it is to have a window in which to shape their destiny.