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SERBIA: This policy brief examines the changing nature of Serbia’s relationship with Russia and assesses its implicatio...
06/23/2026

SERBIA: This policy brief examines the changing nature of Serbia’s relationship with Russia and assesses its implications for the European Union. By analysing four domains – political relations, the economy and energy, security, and societal ties – it argues that the traditionally close Russian-Serbian partnership has seen growing friction and reduced intensity in recent years (Clingedael Institute).

This policy brief examines the changing nature of Serbia’s relationship with Russia and assesses its implications for the European Union.

USA: In a constitutional system built around separated powers, the consent of Congress should be more than an idea the ...
06/23/2026

USA: In a constitutional system built around separated powers, the consent of Congress should be more than an idea the president remembers after a reporter asks. Especially when it comes to questions of war, peace and foreign policy, Congress is where the public’s representatives play a crucial role in national decision-making (The Conversation).

In President Donald Trump’s public language, Congress rarely appears as a coequal branch of government. It appears as an obstacle, an audience, a pressure point, a rubber stamp or an afterthought.

IRAN/USA: Almost twenty-five years of diplomatic efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear program hold a crucial lesson: Vague...
06/23/2026

IRAN/USA: Almost twenty-five years of diplomatic efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear program hold a crucial lesson: Vagueness is a recipe for failure. Precision, even in an agreement that is more permissive than would be ideal, facilitates success. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the United States and Iran, which ends this year’s catastrophic war, ignores that lesson. Diplomacy is the right strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. However, without a significant course correction, the new deal risks becoming another that unravels because negotiators, under pressure to reach any agreement, buried their disagreements in imprecision (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).

By burying disagreements in imprecision, the new deal risks same fate as its predecessors.

USA: I have spent years fighting against Trump’s push toward war with Iran, and I have the scars to prove it. When Trum...
06/20/2026

USA: I have spent years fighting against Trump’s push toward war with Iran, and I have the scars to prove it. When Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, I warned that it would eventually bring us to this moment. Ever since, I have consistently argued against the confrontational path he set the United States on. That record speaks for itself, which is why I can say what follows without any throat-clearing (Responsible Statecraft).

Was it worth it? Of course not. But comparing his Iran deal with Obama's or decrying the terms risks falling into the same traps as previous presidents

NORTH SEA: The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the continuing crisis in the Bab al-Mandab Strait have shown that narrow mar...
06/20/2026

NORTH SEA: The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the continuing crisis in the Bab al-Mandab Strait have shown that narrow maritime passages can and will be used as political weapons in future conflicts. The state actors in Tehran and the non-state actors in Sanaa, however, may not be the only ones that may leverage these choke points in future. For example, Oman’s ports could present an essential part of any land route alternatives like the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) that avoid both the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz. However, they have also faced drone attacks in the current war and will likely face political instabilities in future. An alternative that has come into greater focus is the North Sea Route (NSR) or the Arctic route. Surprisingly, recent reductions in Arctic ice levels have increased the feasibility of using the NSR, now potentially facilitating the movement of goods (Global Security Review).

Published: June 11, 2026 The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the continuing crisis in the Bab al-Mandab Strait have shown that narrow maritime passages can and will be used as political weapons in fu…

JAPAN: On Sunday, February 8th, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae led the LDP to a landslide victory in the House of Repres...
06/20/2026

JAPAN: On Sunday, February 8th, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae led the LDP to a landslide victory in the House of Representatives, securing 316 seats—the highest of any postwar government in Japan. Notably, it was the first lower house election (following the July 2025 House of Councillors election) in which the “foreigner issue” (gaikokujin mondai; 外国人問題) was highly salient. Recent contributions to Tokyo Review provide excellent introductions to this emerging rhetoric, showing that the discourse refers to not a single issue but rather amalgamates and flattens a myriad of perceived problems concerning disparate groups such as various categories of residents, tourists, and even overseas investors into a single foreigner/Japanese dichotomy (Tokyo Review).

Forgotten philosopher and political prisoner Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) can help us understand the discourse of Japan's

ISRAEL: Donald Trump struggled to end the war on Iran on terms he deemed suitable, even as the costs of the war rose. I...
06/20/2026

ISRAEL: Donald Trump struggled to end the war on Iran on terms he deemed suitable, even as the costs of the war rose. In part, that’s because the Israeli leadership repeatedly undermined his negotiating position by invading Lebanon, something that remains a possibility. The dynamic has highlighted just how different American and Israeli interests in the Middle East are, and how deeply integrated the policy apparatuses of the two countries are (Quincy Institute).

Join a Quincy Institute and Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) webinar that will examine how the war on Iran may accelerate the divergence of American and Israeli policy conduct in the Middle East.

AFRICA/USA: The United States enters the second half of the 2020s facing a fundamental question in Africa: Is Washingto...
06/19/2026

AFRICA/USA: The United States enters the second half of the 2020s facing a fundamental question in Africa: Is Washington still seen as a strategic partner of choice, or is it becoming a transactional power whose engagement is seen as narrow, punitive, and unpredictable? This is no longer a theoretical question. It is now being tested in southern Africa, West Africa, the Sahel, and in the mineral-rich heart of the African continent (Foreign Policy Research Institute).

The United States enters the second half of the 2020s facing a fundamental question in Africa: Is Washington still seen as a strategic partner of choice, or

CEASEFIRES: A ceasefire – as we are accustomed to think of the concept – is a kind of transition between war and peace....
06/19/2026

CEASEFIRES: A ceasefire – as we are accustomed to think of the concept – is a kind of transition between war and peace. The parties agree to pause the fighting and then, hopefully, will initiate peace talks. Ideally, a ceasefire is thus the first step towards ending a conflict. A series of events over the past year requires us to question what ‘ceasefire’ is coming to mean in practice (Peace Research Institute Oslo).

We're seeing an incredibly dangerous development where ceasefires are changing character, as conflict parties accept high levels of violence within the ...

USA: Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific have prompted the United Sta...
06/19/2026

USA: Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific have prompted the United States to pursue a deeper inventory of military equipment and platforms deployable at speed and scale. U.S. defense planners are also encouraging new commercial entrants to harness technological innovations and autonomous, attritable assets. While efforts to place the industrial base on a wartime footing are welcome, two persistent factors make designing more advanced systems or simply building greater volumes of equipment unsustainable or even counterproductive (Center for Strategic & International Studies).

The greatest threat to U.S. defense systems is not our adversaries — it's their obsolescence. To calibrate production for evolving threats with scarce resources, the U.S. needs an agile industrial base able to shift between surge, scale, and sustain acquisition strategies.

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