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World Politics Review publishes in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs to help our readers identify and make sense of the events and trends shaping our world. Guided by a commitment to integrity, quality and intellectual honesty, we serve as a forum for creative ideas about how to tackle the world’s most important challenges. OUR APPROACH
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Last weekend, Hungary’s capital witnessed its largest ever Pride parade, a jubilant and resolute rebuke of PM Viktor Orb...
07/02/2025

Last weekend, Hungary’s capital witnessed its largest ever Pride parade, a jubilant and resolute rebuke of PM Viktor Orban’s illiberal policies. Despite a government ban and threats of fines, more than 100,000 people poured into Budapest’s streets in solidarity with the country’s politically targeted LGBTQ+ community.

The massive turnout, far beyond the 40,000 organizers hoped for ahead of the march, marked the biggest Pride event ever to be held in the city. It was also one of the largest opposition gatherings in Hungary’s recent memory.

However, as momentous as this year’s Pride was for the capital, it also highlighted the geographic and political divide between the cosmopolitan enclave of liberal Budapest and Orban’s conservative, rural base beyond the city limits, columnist Amanda Coakley writes.

Budapest’s massive pride parade this year was momentous. It also highlighted the geographic and political obstacles facing Hungary’s opposition.

Before and after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, critics com...
07/02/2025

Before and after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, critics compared his actions to the months preceding and following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The parallels between Iraq in 2003 and Iran in 2025 clearly exist, which is why it is so tempting to lean on the analogy. But it is important to stress the differences as well, because they point to how things might play out in Iran, in ways that could be both better and worse than they did in Iraq a generation ago, columnist Daniel W. Drezner writes.

When the U.S. attacked Iran, many pointed to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a parallel. But it is important to stress the differences as well.

Iran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, a move that will decrease visibility of the ...
07/02/2025

Iran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, a move that will decrease visibility of the country’s nuclear program.

Read more in today’s Daily Review:

Iran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, a move that will decrease visibility of the country’s nuclear program.

More than a week after the U.S. unleashed 75 precision-guided munitions against three key Iranian nuclear sites, debate ...
07/01/2025

More than a week after the U.S. unleashed 75 precision-guided munitions against three key Iranian nuclear sites, debate still rages over how much damage was caused by Operation Midnight Hammer, as the attack was called. Regardless of their material outcome, however, the strikes were significant in political terms, raising the stakes between Washington and Tehran in their standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

Although further escalation was headed off, the skirmish raises questions about how Americans would react to a more protracted conflict with Iran in the future. One question in particular presents itself: How tolerant would U.S. citizens be of large-scale attacks against Iranian cities and their civilian inhabitants should the U.S. engage in a whole-scale conventional war against Iran?

The answer, columnist Charli Carpenter writes, is: not very.

The recent U.S. attack on Iran raises the question of how popular a more protracted conflict with Iran would be among Americans. The answer? Not very.

After navigating a period of extraordinary turmoil, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the head of a ...
07/01/2025

After navigating a period of extraordinary turmoil, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the head of a hyper-presidential system he designed for himself, with all national institutions orbiting around him.

Over the past 15 years, Turkey has seen civil war at home and on its borders, terrorist attacks, a coup attempt and a staggering economic crisis of Erdogan’s own making. Through it all, Erdogan has maintained his grip on power through constant political tacking and relentless persecution of his opponents.

But time waits for no one, and as soon as Erdogan won re-election in 2023, the next challenge to his rule loomed: presidential term limits. By law, Erdogan must leave the presidency at the end of his current five-year term in 2028. But there are clear signs he has no intention of doing so. And if he must, he may nonetheless find a way that keeps him in power, Nate Schenkkan writes.

Turkey’s constitution says Erdogan must leave the presidency when his term ends in 2028. He’s already maneuvering to stay in power.

Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a controversial leaked phone call between her a...
07/01/2025

Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a controversial leaked phone call between her and a senior Cambodian leader.

Read more in today’s Daily Review:

Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a controversial leaked phone call between her and a senior Cambodian leader.

On the morning of June 19, Roberto Samcam was shot eight times at point-blank range by an assassin posing as a delivery ...
06/30/2025

On the morning of June 19, Roberto Samcam was shot eight times at point-blank range by an assassin posing as a delivery courier at his condominium in San Jose, Costa Rica. Samcam was a retired Nicaraguan army officer who, after fleeing a wave of violent repression that killed over 300 opposition protesters in 2018, had become a prominent critic of the government of President Daniel Ortega.

His assassination is just the latest in a string of killings targeting Nicaraguan dissidents living in exile, suggesting that the current Nicaraguan regime has built an infrastructure outside of its borders to track down and attack its political opponents. But in doing so, Ortega has turned his brutal extraterritorial crackdown against critics of his regime into a form of interstate violence that also targets Nicaragua’s neighbors and trade partners, columnist James Bosworth writes.

Ortega has turned his brutal crackdown against critics into a form of interstate violence that also targets Nicaragua’s neighbors and trade partners.

When NATO leaders gathered in The Hague last week, the novel choreography of summit diplomacy in the age of U.S. Preside...
06/30/2025

When NATO leaders gathered in The Hague last week, the novel choreography of summit diplomacy in the age of U.S. President Donald Trump played out as expected, with new pledges on burden-sharing, dodged decisions over Ukraine’s membership path and quiet dissent over the future of European strategic autonomy.

But the most consequential developments shaping the alliance today are not happening in summit plenary sessions. They are unfolding on factory floors thousands of miles from the Dutch coast, in towns like Camden in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and Bourges, France, where a wartime production boom is remaking the foundations of trans-Atlantic security, Candace Rondeaux writes.

A wartime production boom in NATO countries isn’t just sustaining Ukraine’s defense. It’s also sparking a defense industry revival.

After more than four decades in power, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced Saturday he will seek yet another ter...
06/30/2025

After more than four decades in power, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced Saturday he will seek yet another term next year.

Read more in today’s Daily Review:

Uganda’s 80-year-old president announced that, after more than four decades in power, he will seek yet another term next year.

The highest priority of the behind-the-scenes diplomatic preparations for this week’s NATO Summit in The Hague was to pr...
06/27/2025

The highest priority of the behind-the-scenes diplomatic preparations for this week’s NATO Summit in The Hague was to prevent a major disaster. In the midst of wars in Europe and the Middle East, that may have looked like a rock-bottom level of ambition. But with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House, a “no surprises” summit was considered essential for the alliance’s cohesion.

The strategy revolved around concentrating on NATO’s means: a new defense spending target of 5 percent of GDP. In satisfying a demand that Trump has made central to his second-term approach to the alliance, the summit was a spectacular diplomatic success.

However, the price paid was neglect of the details of NATO’s end goals—namely, the threats the alliance is meant to deter. As a result, yet another nail may have been unknowingly placed in NATO’s coffin this week in The Hague, columnist Nathalie Tocci writes.

The priorities of this year’s NATO summit were to appease Trump and prevent a major disaster. That meant neglecting the alliance’s broader goals.

A series of recent reversals underscore a surprising theme of Starmer’s premiership: Despite having been elected with an...
06/27/2025

A series of recent reversals underscore a surprising theme of Starmer’s premiership: Despite having been elected with an overwhelming legislative majority, he has largely been governing from a defensive crouch.

Read more in today’s Daily Review:

A series of recent reversals underscore a surprising theme of Starmer’s premiership: He has largely been governing from a defensive crouch.

The first-ever parliamentary election in the southern Philippines’ self-governing Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim...
06/26/2025

The first-ever parliamentary election in the southern Philippines’ self-governing Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, had been due to take place last month. Yet earlier this year, the BARMM’s election was postponed by five months, until Oct. 13.

The Muslim-majority BARMM was created in 2019 by the referendum that ratified a peace deal between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or M**F, after decades of talks. It is hoped that the election, when it eventually takes place, will finally end the separatist conflict that pitted rebels from the M**F and other groups against Philippine troops since the 1970s.

The latest delay was granted by Philippine lawmakers to allow competing parties more time to prepare for the polls. But as Michael Hart writes, the delay has also opened space for tensions to rise as the M**F gears up to compete with established local political elites as it attempts to retain power.

The Philippines’ self-governing Bangsamoro will hold its first-ever elections this year, capping a peace process that has faced numerous obstacles.

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