Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine will celebrate Christmas on Sunday (Jan. 7), but instead of Christmas bells, they will hear air raid sirens. The recent onslaught of missiles striking across the country reminded the world of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy of...
The killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut and a shock explosion that killed dozens of mourners of a top Iranian general are challenging efforts to contain fighting on multiple fronts in the Middle East from exploding into a larger war. It’s not yet clear what connection, if any, there is between the suspected Israeli assassination against...
Afghanistan's Taliban government is touting major strides in combating drug production and trafficking over the past year. Acting defense minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid announced at a Kabul press conference on Sunday that 4,472 tons of narcotics had been destroyed, 8,282 individuals involved in production and smuggling were...
A sweeping purge of Chinese generals has weakened the People's Liberation Army, exposing deep-rooted corruption that could take more time to fix and slow Chinese leader Xi Jinping's military modernization drive amid geopolitical tensions, analysts say. China's top lawmakers ousted nine senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported, a step that typically precedes further punishment for...
Southeast Asia’s online scam hubs are drawing growing attention from governments and law enforcement agencies well beyond the region as the criminal syndicates behind them search further afield for victims of their cons and human trafficking. On December 8, the United Kingdom announced sanctions against nine people and five companies accused of trafficking people into...
As a new space race between the United States and China takes off, Africa is increasingly an arena for competition between the two superpowers. And so far, analysts say, China is ahead. While Africa's space agencies are still in their infancy compared to those of the U.S. and China, analysts say space has become a new frontier for diplomacy with...
Facing a growing list of attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Charles "C.Q." Brown was pressed at a recent conference on why the American military wasn't responding more aggressively. Two decades of war in the region, a war that much of the American public is eager to...
The Taliban unquestionably have drastically reduced opium poppy cultivation during the 2022-2023 growing season, roughly duplicating the percentage reduction they achieved in 2000-2001 when they were previously in power. This year’s poppy harvest is orders of magnitude smaller than last year’s and is much lower than in any year since the...
Nato’s cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region will be more “institutionalised” over time, threatening to have a “detrimental” impact on Beijing, analysts said, as representatives from eight Nato countries made joint visits to Japan and South Korea last week. Last Monday, the ambassadors from the Nato countries – the US, Britain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland – met Japanese foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa, with the...
The recent expansion of BRICS should be a key cause of concern for the US, as new members along with countries who want to join could amplify dedollarization, according to a former State Department official. Writing for the Atlantic Council, Thomas Hill noted that Egypt, among others, was added to the BRICS club while Algeria and Tunisia were turned down. And it foreshadows how North African countries may become...