Articles

Iran’s economy is already crippled, but still resilient. The US economy is less threatened, but its political system is less tolerant of short-term economic pain.

In the wake of this weekend’s failed negotiations in Islamabad, the Iran conflict is back on. So, too, are the Trump administration’s efforts to bring the Islamic Republic to heel.

After the failed negotiations this weekend in Islamabad and the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas, the conflict appears poised to resume. Yet Washington heads into the next phase with a clearer understanding of the stakes because the past six-plus weeks have offered a stark lesson about the insecurity of global energy and the vulnerability of maritime choke points.

The Iran War has temporarily disrupted Caucasus-Central Asia connectivity. The United States must reassure the region that it still wishes to engage with its development.

Ukraine is demonstrating, both in word and in deed, that it can help shape the shared fight against today’s revisionist axis. Here’s hoping that the Trump administration takes notice. 

Although it has since been overshadowed by the new Gulf war, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent state visit to Israel – complete with a historic address to the Knesset – speaks volumes about how New Delhi sees the Jewish state, and how one of Israel’s most promising bilateral partnerships might progress.

Over the past four years of war, the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv has been engaging in a delicate balancing act. Western aid – including from the United States – represents a vital lifeline that has enabled Ukraine to successfully battle back against Russian aggression. That support, however, has required careful alignment with Washington and other Western capitals on an array of issues. This, in turn, has meant Kyiv has had to wrestle with just how much it should cooperate with China.

The scale of Secretary General Xi Jinping’s military purges is shocking. More than 100 senior leaders have been removed since 2022. And that number keeps growing, with nine military officers purged just last week and three more retired generals removed from a senior advisory body in early March. 

As of late March 2026, the strategic landscape of Operation Epic Fury has shifted from a high-intensity “shock” campaign to a calculated war of attrition. According to Brig. Gen. (res) Eran Ortal, the conflict has entered a decisive third phase where the combined industrial and logistical weight of the United States, Israel, and the Gulf states is systematically dismantling the Iranian regime’s ability to project power.

This article examines how Uzbekistan can strengthen its economic security by leveraging its extraordinary cultural heritage and strategic positioning to transition from a volume-driven tourism model towards more of a value-driven approach.

The US’ tactical successes against Iran would have a greater effect if they served broader objectives.

With the Iran war in its third week, questions are swirling over the administration's aims, its conduct of the conflict and the trajectory that Iran itself might take.

In the early morning hours of January 3, 2026, the Trump Administration launched "Absolute Resolve," a military operation to apprehend Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and remove him from office. The effort marked the most consequential U.S. intervention in Latin America in decades, involving large-scale coordinated intelligence, air and special operations assets.

Iran is pounding U.S. military positions across the Middle East with missiles and cheap but highly effective drones, killing U.S. troops and wreaking havoc across the Persian Gulf. The cost to the U.S. of its defensive systems far exceeds the cost of Iran’s drones, and America and its regional partners are burning through their air defenses.

Big changes are coming to America’s space forces. 

The United States has proved its military superiority over Iran. Whether it can secure Iran’s enriched uranium, protect the Gulf states, and encourage popular protests is a different story.

Russia’s military manpower shortage has led it to entice over 1,400 people from across the African continent to fight in Ukraine.

America's newest military campaign in the Middle East is now in its second week.

As the Islamic Republic weathers U.S. and Israeli missile strikes on its infrastructure and the killing of key political figures, China remains on the sidelines

Ever since the Trump administration returned to office last year, a major foreign policy debate has raged inside the Washington Beltway.

Wiser leaders would stop picking fights with Washington over a war they can’t influence and that ultimately advances their own security

The three South Caucasus states are responding to the same geopolitical shock with radically different resources, constraints, and choices.

Are we headed toward a new war with Iran? The possibility looks increasingly likely.

President Donald Trump has now set out a June deadline for the end of the war, and the White House expects Moscow and Kyiv to reach some sort of settlement. The operative question is whether Russia’s economic calculus can truly be changed by then. 

In February 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Budapest to herald a “new golden age” of relations, signing a major civilian nuclear deal and pledging a “financial protective shield” for Hungary. This visit followed President Trump’s “complete and total” endorsement of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who currently trails challenger Péter Magyar in the polls ahead of the April 12 election. Critics warn that making bilateral relations contingent on individual leaders turns long-term alliances into fragile transactional affairs. Furthermore, Orbán’s continued energy dependence on Russia and his security ties to China present a significant paradox for the administration’s broader “Great Power” strategy.

After years of military involvement in the Syrian theater, America is understandably eager to turn the page. But doing so prematurely risks abandoning a known and capable counterterrorism partner for a still-untested arrangement. That is hardly a recipe for lasting stability.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has produced a paradox for US strategy: it has significantly reduced Russia’s strategic long-term power while hardening Moscow into a more dangerous, risk-tolerant adversary for the United States and its allies and partners in Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.

The January 2026 internet blackout in Iran, following protests that erupted on December 28, has exposed the deep failures of the National Information Network (NIN).

China doesn’t need to invade America to control its farmland. It just needs to buy it. Through state-backed conglomerates, shell companies and global acquisitions, Beijing is doing just that, gaining fiduciary leverage over farmland across our nation and threatening America’s long-term food security. It is clear that more must be done to prevent the Chinese Communist Party, our foremost global competitor, from weakening America’s agricultural independence from within.

A deal with Iran at this moment may prolong the unnatural life of the mullah’s regime.

Iranians negotiate like they’re in the bazaar,” a Middle East scholar once wrote. “Westerners negotiate like they’re shopping at Macy’s.”

A change in Russia’s government is more likely to take place than conventional wisdom allows.

The strategic logic underpinning Israel's outreach to Somaliland, in other words, is compelling. It simultaneously provides the country with a strategic foothold opposite Yemen, greater proximity to the ongoing threat posed by the Houthis, a deeper stake in Red Sea security, and the potential to become a much bigger player in African politics. For those reasons, Israel's newest partnership is well positioned to endure.

The Organization of Turkic States has expanded beyond its cultural foundations to address regional challenges through green finance, digital innovation, and artificial intelligence initiatives. Led by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the OTS established the Turkic Green Finance Council and proposed collaborative AI networks, responding to economic pressures from sanctions and oil price fluctuations. 

The Organization of Turkic States has evolved its approach toward Tajikistan, shifting from explicit support for Kyrgyzstan during border conflicts to more inclusive language. Early OTS statements emphasized brotherly solidarity with Kyrgyzstan while implicitly attributing blame to Tajikistan, prompting sharp criticism from Dushanbe. Following diplomatic progress culminating in the March 2025 Kyrgyz-Tajik border treaty, OTS rhetoric shifted significantly. 

Today’s internet blackout in Iran, in other words, is merely the most visible manifestation of an accelerating information arms race. Iran’s radical regime is racing to consolidate digital control over its captive population. If it succeeds in doing so, Iran’s brave protesters will find themselves truly cut off from the outside world.

Despite many US inducements, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has turned away from normalization with Israel and broader US alignment in the Middle East.

Canadian and European political leaders of various stripes seem to be tripping over themselves to articulate a sensible position on the escalating conflict between NATO allies over Greenland, a Danish colonial possession until 1953 that is now an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and a territory the United States now seeks. However, this collective incoherence does nothing to reduce tensions, much less help overcome the danger we all face. As a Canadian, I propose an outside-the-box compromise solution that puts Canada First. 

Big changes are afoot in Eurasia. Over the past several months, the region has undergone a series of tectonic shifts, as countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have recalibrated their respective foreign policies and expanded ties with the West.

To make sense of how Gamsakhurdia engaged with Georgian Christian mysticism, I organize his sources into two analytical categories—what I term the “Gelati current” and the “prophetic current.” These are, crucially, not divisions that Gamsakhurdia himself articulated, but rather, groupings that help illuminate the different functions these sources served in his thinking.

This piece is the second in a three-part series on the esoteric sources of Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s worldview. The first piece introduces the series and provides theoretical and historical context for its material and claims. This piece focuses on anthroposophy. The third piece will focus on Georgian Christian mysticism.

In these pieces, I begin (but certainly do not finish) the process of undertaking that engagement by tracing and examining the esoteric sources that shaped Gamsakhurdia’s worldview. To Gamsakhurdia, Georgia was not just a newly independent state among many newly independent states, but the bearer of an ancient history and a future mission of great significance. It was a chosen mediator between—and synthesizer of—worlds: Western and Eastern, earthly and divine.

Shortly after space week in October, investment firm JP Morgan announced a $10 billion investment plan targeting industries critical for United States national security. In addition to things like nanomaterials, autonomous robotics and solar power, the announcement also focused on funding spacecraft and space launches.

President Donald Trump has been busy on the world stage of late—toppling Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro in a precision strike by U.S. forces, warning Tehran not to turn its guns on Iran’s protestors, and pushing for Russia-Ukraine peace.

Despite a lack of organization and vision for the future, the protests rocking Iran signal that the Islamic Republic is running out of time.

The new Executive Order on “ensuring space superiority” issued by President Trump is a milestone.

When it comes to a nation's potential, few factors matter more than demographics. The pace of a country's population determines a great many things, from the vibrancy of its society to its global competitiveness.

Just how widespread is domestic support for Russia's war on Ukraine, really?

The peripheral, energy-rich areas of Russia are bearing the brunt of the human and economic costs of the Ukraine War.