While US threats against Iran continue, the Islamic Republic may achieve a political victory in its neighbor, Iraq. The reason: The ruling parliamentary coalition in that country has nominated Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister. In the country fractured by ethnic and sectarian groups after the US invasion in 2003, which left behind a balkanized political system, the ...

From Caracas, Venezuela A month has passed since the kidnapping of President Maduro and the appointment of Delcy Rodríguez – according to the constitutional mandate – as acting president, although the United States insists on calling her “interim president”. This situation has unfolded within the context of a cognitive war characterized by conflicting positions regarding what is happening. In my ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Russian strategic thinking has historically been motivated by the desire to project power beyond its near-abroad and secure a seat at the table of a multipolar world order. With relations with the West growing ever more strained, the Kremlin has increasingly had reason to look east—not just to China or India, but to Southeast Asia, one ...

By Serhat Latifoğlu Gold has risen by 130 percent since the start of 2024, and silver is up nearly 175 percent since mid-2025. As the first quarter of the twenty-first century draws to a close, the global economic and financial system is undergoing not merely a cyclical fluctuation but a structural transformation. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the unprecedented monetary ...

Once again, the world’s rulers failed to grasp the world! The same issues, the same panels, the same sentences, once again, fell short of tangible benefits for the planet. This year, from January 19 to 23, the World Economic Forum convened in Davos under the theme of “The Spirit of Dialogue”, hosting 64 heads of state and government alongside more ...

By Yiğit Saner The trilateral talks on Jan. 23-24 in the UAE capital signaled a renewed acceleration in diplomatic traffic in the war in Ukraine. Yet the two days of talks, far from coming to a settlement, ultimately reaffirmed that the parties remain their positions. New dates are being set and talks are ongoing, but there has been no significant ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer As Bangladesh moves to re-calibrate its geopolitics and economy in the background of evolving Indo-Pacific dynamics, whether Bangladesh will be able to become a full-fledged member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is gaining traction yet again. As its economy grows, and it hopes to be a manufacturing and logistics hub for the region, ...

By Dr. Fernando Esteche The decision by Panama’s Supreme Court to annul the concession that allowed CK Hutchison to operate the Cristóbal and Balboa ports on the Panama Canal represents the culmination of a geopolitical operation executed with surgical precision. The ruling by Panama’s highest court is not an exercise in independent judicial sovereignty but rather confirmation that Panama remains ...

UWI writer and political scientist Onur Sinan Güzaltan discussed the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa in Moscow on January 28, as well as the US-Russia-Ukraine talks, on Ulusal Kanal Television. The interview, conducted in Turkish, has been translated into English by UWI. What does al-Sharaa’s visit to Russia mean at a time when ...

“I think of the military build-up of the United States of America together with the developments in Syria, the election of a new president in Iraq, the appointment of prime ministers, and all the processes that reflect the division within Iraq, and even the sending of imprisoned ISIS members to Iraq. In fact, the United States is currently trying to ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Donald Trump may have initiated the global trade war with a deluge of tariffs and anti-China rhetoric, but the ultimate shape of the conflict will be determined, not in Washington, but in Asian capitals. While American protectionism is taking up all the headlines, it is Asia’s remitted response—calibrated, diversified, and more indigenously grown—recalibrating worldwide commercial dynamics ...

From Cairo / Egypt As the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln plows through the waters of the Middle East, carrying the omens of a military operation that could be the largest in decades, Gulf capitals are experiencing a state of silent diplomatic mobilization. This mobilization is no longer rooted in anxiety born of weakness, but rather in strategic maturity ...