Articles

President Donald Trump’s growing list of failed Middle East deals demonstrates that his attempts to push critical issues into the future have met with limited success.

Many analysts assume that the Iran War has turned even regime-skeptical Iranians against the West. This assumption may be unwarranted.

The Ukraine war has evolved into an innovation contest since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Faced with a larger adversary that it can’t match tank for tank or aircraft for aircraft, Kyiv has compensated with ingenuity—adapting commercial tech for military purposes, pioneering new applications for drones, and refining battlefield tactics for maximum effect. The result has been a conflict in which information is as crucial as firepower. 

Whether it’s Netanyahu or someone else running the show after Israel’s October elections, the country will continue to face attacks from multiple directions. It will continue to respond forcefully, as any nation would.

Last week’s launch of the strategic dialogue between Washington and Belgrade helps to advance all four fronts. What comes next, in terms of concrete deliverables on energy, strategic minerals, defense and regional partnerships, will determine whether the current opening translates into lasting strategic gains for the United States in the Western Balkans.

Back in 2023, when the Malian army, aided by Russian mercenary forces, recaptured the northern city of Kidal, it seemed like the start of a new order in the West African state. Mali’s ruling military junta claimed it had done what the previous government could not: retake the strategically vital town from separatist forces. Russia, in turn, was able to offer evidence that it could serve as an effective security partner for those disillusioned with the West.

As we become an interplanetary species, it is important to protect this multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment while building a habitable environment. That starts with bolstering the Space Force’s ability to detect and counter asteroid threats to American lunar infrastructure.

Is Russia on the cusp of another military draft? Just a few weeks ago, the idea was pretty much unthinkable, and for good reason. These days, however, it’s becoming more and more difficult for Moscow to avoid the specter of another military call-up.

As long as Armenia’s constitution is still based on territorial claims that conflict with its neighbors, Yerevan’s recent strategic gains can still be reversed. Without that change, the current peace in the South Caucasus might last only as long as the current government remains in power in Yerevan. The United States and Armenia’s allies in the West have a stake in it lasting much longer.

Even while negotiating an agreement with Iran, President Trump, too, can reverse course, shine a consistent light on Tehran’s abuses, and give human rights promotion a global boost.

The Iranian regime has made its atomic ambitions abundantly clear, and has funneled enormous resources into this project over the past several decades. Logic therefore dictates that American policy needs to deny it every pathway for turning those aspirations into a weapon – not simply the most obvious one.

The war in Iran has taken an unexpected turn.

Space is now a key stage in the competition among great powers. No longer peripheral, it is becoming integral to how states pursue dominance and shape the international system. Grand strategy is the long-term (multi-generational) effort by states to secure advantage and shape the international system. When great powers compete, they do so through rival grand strategies, extending their pursuit of security and influence across domains. 

Since the onset of hostilities, Russia has used the war to target sites that anchor Ukrainian national and spiritual identity.

By anchoring itself in Africa's emerging space economy, Washington has a rare opportunity to strengthen its partnerships on the continent and compete more effectively with China in the process. Now, it’s up to policymakers to seize this opening.

“The terms of the new Memorandum of Understanding agreed to between Washington and Tehran over the weekend have now been made public, and the agreement as currently formulated is more lopsided and less favorable than even the skeptics had initially predicted.”

The potential for change within Iran persists—although the mechanism and timing for such a change are still unclear.