By Cemil Gözel The debate sparked by Noam Chomsky’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein has been framed in some circles as a moral scandal. But the issue runs much deeper than that. When you think about the intellectual persona Chomsky built on his critiques of imperialism, the media, and state violence, reducing the whole thing to a morality scandal traps the ...

By Dure Akram, from Lahore / Pakistan The latest UN sanctions-monitoring report puts a hard edge on a question the region has tried to keep diplomatic: whether Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is merely unstable, or functionally permissive for the kind of cross-border militancy that turns trade maps into casualty lists. In its most recent assessment, the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and ...

US Vice-president J.D. Vance conducted a two-day-visit to the South Caucasus, meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. During both visits, the US signed fundamental agreements with its counterparts. In Armenia, cooperation on nuclear energy and the sales of drones were agreed upon. In Azerbaijan, an agreement of lifting the relations to the strategic ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer In a world that is grappling with an evolving geopolitics order—defined by frayed multilateralism, economic nationalism, and intensifying great-power competition—the evolving China-Vietnam relationship has another tale to tell. Too often seen in the narrow context of their border conflicts and historical challenges, Sino-Vietnamese relations are being constructed in low-key style as a pragmatically rooted, forward-looking relationship ...

Over the past year, Iran has been going through an extremely turbulent period. A full-scale 12-day war—which, despite the killing of senior Iranian military commanders, ultimately turned into a powerful demonstration of Iran’s missile capabilities and deterrence—was followed by severe economic turmoil that led to a sharp depreciation of the national currency and widespread public protests. In addition, a quasi-coup ...

By Ahmed Mahmoud, Columist & managing editor at Ahram Online This title leaped to mind as I sat down to write this article about the roundtable discussion organized by the Hiwar Center for Political and Media Studies and the Embassy of Indonesia in Cairo. I had the honor of moderating this session yesterday at the Diplomatic Club in Cairo, where ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer The United States likes to cite one number boastfully in its relations with Southeast Asia: it is still ASEAN’s single largest foreign investor. On paper, the statistic verifies Washington’s economic significance to a place that is central to global trade and geopolitics. Behind the balance sheets, however, is a more nuanced—and growingly precarious—reality. While US investment ...

By Orçun Göktürk, President of the Turkish-Chinese Studies Center, from Beijing / China The elections in Japan have concluded. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) once again managed to remain at the center of the system and secured a victory that strengthened its power beyond expectations. The coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 352 of the 465 seats ...

By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist/Writer Although it is only the second month of 2026, the world continues to witness events that are reshaping the entire global system. Following events that marked the first month of 2026, such as those in Greenland and Venezuela, the global system is now preparing to leave behind yet another of the “controlled crisis” periods it ...

It is no secret that the Trump administration supports nationalist right-wing parties across Europe. Trump, Musk, and numerous figures from the US administration have openly expressed their support in various meetings and statements, and continue to do so. Now, one of those parties, the AfD, is going through an internal debate over the relationship with Washington. Closely watched in German ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer As President Xi Jinping’s Southeast Asian tour in last year makes headlines, it is the symbolism rather than the content of his meeting that contradicts the Chinese leadership’s priorities in the region. Among the highlights is China’s enhanced partnership with Cambodia. China’s ideology diplomacy, or alternatively described as idealism or pragmatism, is rich soil in Cambodia ...

France’s recent flurry of diplomacy in Damascus, Baghdad and Erbil has prompted commentary suggesting a potential move toward the country’s “lasting presence” in Syria. On February 5, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot visited Damascus, Baghdad and Erbil in a day. Especially Barrot’s meetings with Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani and PKK/YPG leader Mazlum Abdi were interpreted as France exploring ...