Articles

The new Congress has good reason to oppose the Iran War, but it would undercut chances of a favorable peace deal with Iran if it refused to pay for the war.

Aliyev balanced Turkey, Israel, Russia, and the US at once. Ilan Berman on why the Caspian and the Russia-Iran drone pipeline may force Baku to choose.

Who has the upper hand in terms of influence in the Middle East? Increasingly, the answer depends on what you’re measuring. Historically, the United States has been the fast mover in this conversation, with its policies and priorities—like war with Iran—profoundly shaping the region. And when it comes to military power, America is still the region’s dominant external actor.

The midterm elections were nothing short of a political earthquake, as voters soundly repudiated President Donald Trump’s second term agenda. The resulting “blue tsunami” saw Democrats take control of both Houses of Congress, capture key state houses and make major gains at the local level nationwide.

Earlier this week, Israelis went to the polls in a deeply consequential election. Tuesday’s vote was the country’s first since the massacre of October 7, 2023, and it served both as a referendum on the tenure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a larger statement about the country’s political and strategic future.

At first blush, events of recent days suggest that the democratic world remains in long-term retreat and growing disarray.

Next week, Israelis will go to the polls in what will arguably be the most important election in the Jewish state’s 78-year history. It is the first electoral contest since the horrific events of October 7, 2023, in which Palestinian terror group Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 251 others. 

A tense calm has prevailed in Lebanon since Israel’s military withdrew to the “yellow line” outlined in the June ceasefire between the two countries. Progress on the trajectory outlined in the ceasefire agreement is stalled.

Israel’s 2.2 million Arabs, who comprise a fifth of the nation’s electorate, could decide who will serve as Israel’s next prime minister in the hotly contested election for the Knesset on October 27.

Geography has always enabled weaker actors to constrain stronger ones, and cislunar space will be no exception.

Some seven months into the Trump administration’s war on Iran, it has become fashionable for much of the media to depict the conflict as a stalemate – one in which the Trump administration is drifting inexorably toward compromise with Iran’s new, military-dominated regime.

Some 32 former top Iranian officials are demanding Tehran withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “in the shortest time possible,” which would eliminate a major hurdle for the regime to pursue nuclear weapons.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington last week was a grand affair, full of pomp and circumstance designed to convey a clear message...

In Russia, we know elections are stage-managed affairs, with outcomes predetermined well in advance and then triumphantly presented as evidence of pluralism and representative government.

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.

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.

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.

On Oct. 1, a new mobilization law will take effect in China — one that puts Xi Jinping’s stamp on mounting war preparations.

"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.”