Executive Summary This report examines the Taliban-led Afghan government’s decision to launch a $10 billion energy infrastructure project with Azizi Energy. The initiative seeks to build 10,000 megawatts of electricity capacity in the next ten years to lessen reliance on imported energy and meet domestic needs. It also has political aims, such as increasing control within the country and seeking […]

For more than a decade, Chinese politics has been defined by one man: Xi Jinping. Since Xi assumed leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, he has made himself into a strongman ruler. He has remade the CCP elite through a wide-ranging purge and corruption crackdown. He has curbed civil society and suppressed dissent. He has reorganized and modernized […]

Bottom Line Up Front Chinese infrastructure investments throughout Europe have the potential to pose a strategic risk to the West, not just the countries where the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is spreading its economic and geopolitical influence, but also to Europe’s allies, including the U.S. Chinese ownership and investment in ports highlights the impact and influence that Beijing has, […]

Rescue operations are ongoing to find dozens more missing, local authorities say. At least 68 refugees and migrants have died and 74 others remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, according to the United Nations migration agency. Abdusattor Esoev, head of the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, told The Associated Press news agency […]

Abstract: Taiwan must rethink its defence strategy due to a rising threat from China’s overwhelming military and industrial capabilities. However, Taiwan faces critical imbalances in troop strength, defence budgets, and technological infrastructure, emphasising the need for an asymmetric approach to deterrence. In this respect, Taiwan could draw lessons from Ukraine’s civilian-led drone innovation and Israel’s integrated civil preparedness to formulate […]

Abstract: There is a plethora of studies on suicide terrorism from different aspects, but researchers have failed to identify suicide attacks as a weapon of choice. This reluctance may stem from the fact that suicide terrorism does not fall under the strict terminology of ‘weapon’. Suicide attacks have been used as a weapon to accomplish both hard and soft targets. […]

The rise of radical Islamic influence under Yunus’s watch threatens to transform Bangladesh from a secular democracy into a theocratic state. The passive response of Yunus’s interim government to these demands signals either weakness or tacit approval of the country’s Islamization. Yunus’s interim government lifted the bans imposed on Jamaat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, and “all associated organizations.” […]

Beijing’s Ambivalence Is Limiting Its Role The war in Ukraine continues to shape China’s foreign relations. When European leaders visited Beijing last week to discuss trade and security, the need to find a resolution to the war was one major reason why Chinese-European relations had reached an “inflection point,” according to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. For […]

Tech major Nvidia announced that it has received clearance from the United States (US) government to sell its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chip in China. This development comes on the heels of its CEO, Jensen Huang, meeting the US President Donald Trump. The US Commerce Department had curbed the sales of the H20 AI chip in April 2025, and the […]

India’s, Russia’s, and possibly even China’s interests could be adversely affected. It was assessed in January that “The Pakistani Regime Destroyed Their Country & Betrayed Its National Interests For Nothing”, but that appraisal has since drastically changed due to the Trump Administration’s unexpectedly hard line towards India and how deftly Pakistan then played its cards with him. Regarding the first, […]