America’s security and global influence in this 21st century will be significantly impacted by the world’s fastest-growing and changing region: Africa. A bipartisan consensus among U.S. foreign policy leaders is pressing the United States to intensify its engagements across the continent to counter rising violence and instability that is often rooted in poor governance and unmet human needs. Yet next year, America risks losing a powerful, cost-effective tool for building U.S.-African partnership, peace and prosperity. Last week, a gathering at USIP of African and U.S. business and policy leaders sharpened and bolstered critical arguments for renewing and enhancing this vital instrument: the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Type: Analysis

Economics;  Global Policy

Earlier this year, China brokered talks between Myanmar’s military and an alliance of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that handed the army its worst defeat in history. The negotiations’ goal was to restore overland trade — interrupted by fighting — between China’s Yunnan Province and Myanmar. To China’s frustration, the talks collapsed in mid-May, and in late June the alliance reopened its anti-junta offensive.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

In 2024, Russia’s hybrid war on Europe is notably targeting tiny Moldova, which, like Ukraine, is struggling for full independence from centuries of domination by Moscow. Specifically, Vladimir Putin’s government is campaigning to scuttle Moldova’s decision to join the European Union — and one strategy is to sustain opposition by the country’s minority Gagauz community. In just 11 weeks, Moldovans will vote whether to re-elect their pro-Europe president and ratify her government’s European choice. The Kremlin is sponsoring an opposition campaign that appears certain to lose those votes; Moscow may try instead to undermine the elections’ credibility, partly through political manipulation among the Gagauz.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

China and the Philippines recently struck a secretive deal to deescalate confrontations over the Second Thomas Shoal, “one of the tensest flashpoints in the western Pacific,” says USIP’s Andrew Scobell. “Nobody wants to see it escalate to war,” but the “the ambiguity [of the deal] … allows both sides to claim victory.”

Type: Podcast

After months of fraught negotiations and diplomacy between the Maduro regime, Venezuela’s opposition and the international community, Venezuelans finally cast their votes in the country’s presidential elections this past Sunday. Polls had consistently shown opposition candidate Edmundo González on route toward a landslide victory — and data from election day revealed voters were poised to end more than a decade of President Nicolás Maduro’s grip on the country.

Type: Question and Answer

Democracy & Governance