The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a large-scale international cooperation project which was announced by the Chinese government in 2013. This grand project aims to improve international cooperation across regions and continents, linking together more than 60 countries and (re)creating both maritime (the “belt”) and terrestrial (“the road”)...

Although it is on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq that the destructive capacity of political violence driven by religious dogma is most apparent, the impact of soteriological narratives have become apparent across the world. The contours of power continue to be recast across the Arab world, which has...

According to Eurostat, an unprecedented number of asylum seekers arrived in Europe in 2015, the majority of whom were primarily fleeing the civil war in Syria. As of early 2018, Germany has been host to the largest number of people, having granted protection to 593,410 asylum seekers in 2015...

The small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa made the headlines in May 2018 due to claims that soldiers on the new Chinese base were pointing lasers at U.S. aircraft landing at the American base. Djibouti is the only “official,” permanent American base in Africa, and the...

Liwa al-Baqir (The Baqir Brigade, named for the fifth Shi’a Imam) is a militia group that is as part of the Syrian “Local Defence Forces”  and strongly linked to Iran, Hezbollah and Harakat Al-Nujaba. The origins of the group appear to date to around 2012 in the eastern and...

War and chaos have been present in Afghanistan for almost all of the past four decades.  The current conflict there in 2001, when the United States and NATO allies invaded in response to al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11 of that year.  Recently the United States...

Starting on July 19, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This was the first visit of the Head of State of China to the UAE in the past 29 years. It was also the first visit by Chinese Communist party and...

The future of negotiations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea), South Korea, and the United States over the North’s nuclear program have swung dramatically between warm embraces across an armistice line and renewed threats of nuclear warfare.  What is happening, and what is at stake?...

French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the United States for three days in late April showed a somewhat surprising effort by the French head of state to demonstrate a close friendship with U.S. President Donald Trump. In the U.S. media, more attention was paid to the so-called ‘bromance’...

Just over a year ago His Highness Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum inaugurated the UAE’s Soft Power Council. The Council, which launched the UAE’s Soft Power Strategy during the Government’s Annual Meetings in September 2017, will oversee efforts to enhance the country’s international reputation. In taking this initiative, the...

On 8 May the President of the United States announced the USA would no longer participate in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, also known as the Iran Deal), effective immediately.  Furthermore, the President announced that US sanctions on Iran relating to its nuclear activity would be reinstated....

The Strategic Situation in Somalia and the Upcoming Withdrawal of International Forces Last year, on March 6, 2017, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) marked its tenth year of combat operations against Al-Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group. Six African countries provide the soldiers for AMISOM: Uganda, Burundi,...