Geopolitics & Strategy
Alliance dynamics, power competition, sanctions, and strategic posture.
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Assad Loyalists Are Plotting a Comeback in Syria — and It's Falling Apart
Exiled Assad loyalists in Russia and Lebanon are competing to revive the old Syrian regime, but money, rivalry, and a stabilizing Syria are sinking the plot.
The Biggest Losers of the Iran War So Far: How the Conflict Spilled Past Iran's Borders
A region-by-region map of the Iran War's global fallout, from the Gulf's desalination crisis to India's fuel shock, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Asia's energy triage.
What If BRICS Became a Military Alliance?
A defense analysis of whether the BRICS bloc could become a NATO-style military alliance, its combined firepower, and why collective defense remains unlikely.
Can Japan Stop China? Tokyo's Remilitarization and the Race for Asia
As Washington's commitment to Asia wavers, Japan under PM Takaichi is rearming and building a regional coalition to check Chinese dominance. Can it work?
Could Canada Become Europe's Arsenal? The Case for a New Trans-Atlantic Defense Pact
Europe needs weapons it can't build fast enough, and Canada has idle industrial capacity. Inside the case for Canada becoming Europe's defense arsenal.
China's Invisible Navy: How a Fishing Fleet Became a Strategic Weapon in the East China Sea
Thousands of Chinese maritime militia vessels are massing in geometric formations off Shanghai, testing a force that could decide a Taiwan invasion while Washington looks elsewhere.
More in Geopolitics & Strategy
Who Russia Invades Next: The Case Against Armenia and Georgia
As Putin runs out of options in Ukraine, two vulnerable Caucasus states sit in Russia's sights. We weigh the case for an invasion of Armenia versus Georgia.
Russia Is Failing in Africa: How the Sahel Project Unravelled
Russia's Africa Corps was sold to the Sahel's juntas as the cure for jihadist violence. After Kidal fell and Mali burned, the project is unravelling.
Russia's Other Private Armies: The PMC Legion Beyond Wagner
Beyond Wagner, Russia runs a sprawling network of private military companies—Redut, Patriot, Rusich, the Imperial Movement, and Gazprom's own battalions.
Falling Russians, India's Balancing Act, and the Sahel's Shifting Alliances
Russia's wave of fatal high-rise falls, India's pivot between China and Washington, Mali courting the US, and Ghana's Bawku crisis under the JNIM shadow.
The Saudi-Pakistan Defense Pact: A Mutual Defense Deal Already in Doubt
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact in September. Months later, a nuclear question, an Islamic NATO debate, and an uninvoked clause cloud its future.
Situation Room AMA: Rojava, Mozambique, the Afghan-Pakistan Flashpoint, and Why Europe Isn't a Superpower
A reader-driven survey of four under-covered fault lines — Kurdish-run Rojava, Mozambique's post-election revolt, the Afghan-Pakistani border war, and Europe's unrealized power.