Although he stepped down as prime minister and de facto dictator in 2023, after more than three decades running Cambodia with an iron hand, Hun Sen has remained the most powerful actor in the country. He still, according to virtually every Cambodian politician and analyst, remains more powerful than the current prime minister, Hun Manet, the son of Hun Sen. […]

The power to control access to money is no longer the exclusive privilege of the sovereign. Increasingly, the rules governing how money is created, moves, and is held are enforced not by governments alone but by code, online networks, and protocols beyond the authority of any single nation. The U.S. GENIUS Act—short for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. […]

The failed recall campaign in Taiwan will likely prompt continued political gridlock, raising important questions for U.S.-Taiwan and cross-Strait relations. On Saturday, July 26, all 24 legislators from Taiwan’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who were up for recall survived the vote, heading off an unprecedented effort to replace legislators elected just last year. The failure of the “Great Recall” campaign […]

The Trump administration’s proposed high tariffs on Indian imports raise concerns about the U.S.-India partnership. But the rates seem to be part of a negotiating tactic aimed at concluding a trade deal and possibly even a peace agreement. On July 31, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent “reciprocal” tariff on Indian imports, effective August 7, aimed at forcing […]

Launched at the 2023 Group of Twenty (G20) summit in New Delhi, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) features three pillars that integrate existing and future infrastructure: a transportation pillar—the corridor’s backbone—integrating rail and maritime networks, an energy pillar with interconnected energy and electricity infrastructure across continents, and a digital pillar providing new fiber-optic cables and cross-border digital infrastructure.

Today, a 50 percent tariff on most Indian goods went into effect, the latest evidence of how the Trump administration’s attempts at trade diplomacy with India have quietly unraveled into a broader strategic standoff. This development risks compromising decades of work under Republican and Democratic administrations that sought to build a durable US-India strategic relationship to serve, among other things, […]

When Fatima Bhutto opened her recent Zeteo essay with the line that as a Pakistani she is “used to politics as a theater of the absurd,” she was not indulging in hyperbole. She was simply stating the only law that never fails in our political life: if there is a move to be made that defies logic, tramples public sentiment, […]

China has ramped up its maritime presence in the South China Sea near its rival the Philippines after a collision between two Chinese government ships earlier this month left a China coast guard vessel seriously damaged and Beijing seriously embarrassed. Beijing’s show of force in the contested waters is a face-saving exercise, analysts tell Newsweek, one that could test Washington’s […]

When economic interests align, new political and security partnerships often follow, and one of the most promising examples of this is the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). This ambitious project seeks to create a “golden road” linking East and West, not just for trade—but as a model for future regional integration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls it the “largest […]

Abstract: China has recently been pursuing a much more aggressive stance in African security affairs, including playing a more engaged role in counterterrorism (CT). Where is China engaged in CT in Africa, and by what means? What challenges would China face in engaging more robustly in African CT? Most importantly, why is China newly expressing interest in engaging in the […]