South Korean people watch a live TV report showing North Korea’s special announcement that it has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a station in Seoul, South Korea, 29 November 2017.
EPA-EFE/KIM HEE-CHUL
Clément Therme, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
The Trump administration’s change of US policy toward Iran has reinforced hardliners’ ambitions and nationalistic feelings, complicating an already difficult situation in the region.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the signing ceremony on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, May 14 2017.
Reuters/Kenzaburo Fukuhara
In Afghanistan, geopolitics are thorny, relationships are key and patience is strategy. The US president has outlined a decent plan, but can he see it through?
The surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production has transformed the energy picture in the country, but the influence is muted globally.
Pixabay
The future of the relationship between the US and Russia depends on whether the Kremlin can find a way to interpret Trump’s motives.
The Navy converted to oil from coal a few years before the U.S. entered World War I, helping to solidify petroleum’s strategic status.
Naval History and Heritage Command
Before World War I, petroleum had few practical uses, but it emerged from the war as a strategic global asset necessary for national stability and security.
An Afghan militia vehicle on the outskirts of Kunduz, in October 2016.
Bahsir Khan Safi/AFP
Under the Obama administration, the US army began to recruit, arm, and finance local militias to fight the Taliban. With Trump in the White House, what remains of this strategy?
China plys its trade in Europe.
EPA/Wojciech Pacewicz
The BRICS bloc of states have resolved to establish an alternative credit rating agency to counter western dominance in the financial markets. Will it work?
German stock market after US election, November 9, 2016.
Frank Rumpenhorst/EPA
As candidate, Trump promised protectionist trade policies and denigrated international agreements. Now, as president of the United States, how far can he go?
Populists now run the United States, Russia, Turkey, and the Philippines — as well as many Latin American and African nations. What does this mean for the world?
In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, part of a behind-the-scenes policy to ensure access to oil for the U.S. and its allies.
National Archives and Records Administration
In the heat of the moment, there can be a temptation to overstate the importance of events. But Trump’s election marks the end of an era. Asia’s international politics have entered uncharted waters.
A French soldier involved in Operation Barkhane to keep Al Qaeda at bay in the desert of northern Mali patrols a street in Timbuktu.
Joe Penney/Reuters
The US and France have bolstered military strength across vast areas of Africa in response to Islamist threat. But the interest is also driven by Western strategic calculations
Do Kerry and Putin operate in parallel universes?
Sputnik Photo Agency/Reuters
Russia’s energy exports are expanding far beyond oil and gas to include coal, nuclear and refined petroleum products, a trend with far-reaching geopolitical consequences.