Last month, Japan released its latest annual defense white paper. The document has a great deal to say about the threats now confronting the island nation, ranging from an increasingly assertive China to a nuclear North Korea. But one of its most important themes concerns something else entirely: the changing nature of warfare itself.
On Oct. 1, a new mobilization law will take effect in China — one that puts Xi Jinping’s stamp on mounting war preparations.
The dream of the “Trump Route” in the Caucasus will remain unfulfilled without further connectivity to Central Asia.
As the Trump administration grapples with how best to confront Iran, its efforts remain centered on sporadic military action and the promise of aggressive economic sanctions. Meanwhile, inside the country, a human rights crisis is escalating—one that Washington is uniquely positioned to help counter.
"President Putin, thank you so much for having us,” U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff gushed recently in Moscow, where he and fellow U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner sought to coax Putin into making peace with Ukraine by offering more economic cooperation and the lifting of sanctions. “When we retire,” Witkoff added, “we’ll have all these incredible stories and memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.”
On February 24 Vladimir Putin began the fifth year of his disastrous war against Ukraine. It has sacrificed a million men killed or wounded in order to gain a fragile hold on only a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a very public state visit to Egypt. Officially, the three-day trip, the first of its kind by a Chinese leader in at least a decade, was intended to commemorate 70 years of bilateral ties between Cairo and Beijing.
In recent weeks, authorities in Tehran have stepped up the execution of political opponents, deepened the persecution of religious minorities and imbued the country’s domestic repression apparatus with new authority and freedom.
Falling launch costs, private investment, and advances in orbital power are turning space-based solar power from a distant concept into an emerging industry.
A year ago this month, President Trump launched the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, TRIPP for short, in partnership with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Israel’s political exhaustion and total war mindset are convincing many Israelis that their future lies elsewhere.
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.