Responsible Statecraft · 04/10/2026
The current war with Iran and its chaotic unfolding open a door of great danger for the U.S. and the planet. At best, we are condemned to negotiations dominated by personal and political imperatives that seem to fit with a common description of insanity — to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. At worst, the crisis raises the prospect that tactical nuclear weapons could be employed to solve it. The situation has now become so grave, and its implications for the global economy so devastating, that even China — which otherwise is notoriously disciplined in avoiding entanglement in other countries’ conflicts — has indicated o
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Responsible Statecraft · 05/10/2026
Late last month, Japan’s defense ministry made an unsettling announcement. A U.S. ground-based missile system, known as the Typhon and capable of firing Tomahawk missiles, would not return to the United States after being deployed to Japan for military exercises. Instead, it would be stored at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, at least temporarily. Tokyo tried to downplay the move, noting that the decision was intended to support training, not warfighting, and that no U.S. Army units would deploy with the missile system. But the reassuring language is unlikely to forestall the negative consequences of the posture change: an increase in military ten
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Responsible Statecraft · 05/10/2026
Reports that more oil is getting through the Strait of Hormuz have been heralded as a win for the Trump administration, but experts say this kind of happy talk hides the fact that the war remains in a quagmire. As shipping costs rise and Iran continues to attack vessels, world markets — including fuel — will remain in peril for the foreseeable future. In other words, no matter how much narrative-shaping is attempted to alter American perspectives before the midterms, prices for consumers will not come down to so-called pre-war levels in time for any change. If anything, the diesel crisis continues , as does the impact of ships carrying dry bu
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Responsible Statecraft · 02/10/2026
This Sunday, Brazilian voters head to the polls to decide whether leftwing incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will win a historic fourth term. Lula’s challenger is Flávio Bolsonaro, who has styled himself as a more moderate version of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, the rightwing firebrand who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup. The tight electoral contest has been defined by the economy, crime, and scandal, as a probe into a prominent jailed banker revealed that he financed a new hagiographic biopic about the elder Bolsonaro at Flavio’s request. If neither candidate receives more than 50% of th
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The American Conservative · 05/10/2026
China Taiwan Isn’t the Flashpoint for War that Analysts Say It Is Washington and Beijing have managed the difficult issue much better than you might realize. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) During the recent Trump–Xi summit in Washington, there was something of an awkward silence over Taiwan. That’s probably for the best. The issue did not need to be talked about, because Taiwan is what an international lawyer might call “settled diplomacy.” The genius of the longstanding diplomatic arrangement is that it does not resolve the Taiwan question. Instead, it settles how three governments—Washington, Beijing, and Taipei—will live with the fact that it
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Responsible Statecraft · 05/10/2026
On September 21, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq officially announced the completion of the long-delayed unification and reorganization of its Peshmerga paramilitary forces under the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPA). The Peshmerga are Kurdish armed forces, with roots going back to Kurdish guerrillas who fought as a more or less united front against successive Iraqi governments for most of the 20th century. After the 2003 invasion, though, they never came together as one Kurdish national army. Instead, they split into two separate party forces, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), each tied to one o
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Responsible Statecraft · 01/10/2026
Ethiopia is on the brink of another civil war. Last week, fighting between rebels and federal forces in the northern Tigray, Amhara, and Afar states left hundreds dead. These clashes may signal the start of a potentially devastating conflict in a country still recovering from a bloody civil war that killed approximately 600,000 people between 2020 and 2022. Fighting began as seven rebel groups from across various parts of the country announced the formation of a military coalition called the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival . The alliance’s expressed aim is to remove the federal government headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Al
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Courrier International - Tous les RSS · 05/10/2026
Le président Umaro Sissoco Embaló votant à Gabu, en Guinée-Bissau, lors de l’élection présidentielle du 23 novembre 2025.
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