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.
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The Situation Room: China, Japan, Syria, Sudan, and the Logic of the Trump Doctrine
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Germany's Rearmament, the Gaza Endgame, and the Red Sea's New Shadow War
Germany rebuilds a high-tech military, Europe and the Arab world corner Israel over Gaza, and a Houthi-al-Shabaab pact reshapes Red Sea security.
South Korea: The Disruptor Reshaping the Global Balance of Power
How South Korea's arms-export boom, deepening US and Japan ties, and surging defense industry are turning a peninsula state into a global power broker.
Starting the Iran War Was Easy. Stopping It Will Be Hard
Why Washington, the Gulf states, and Israel cannot agree on an off-ramp from the Iran war, and why Tehran may end up deciding when the fighting stops.
The Porcupine Strategy: How Taiwan Plans to Survive a Chinese Invasion
Inside Taiwan's deterrence doctrine, the Overall Defense Concept, and the war games that reveal what survival against a Chinese invasion would actually cost.
The US Has Cut Off Venezuelan Oil: How Trump's Reversal Could Devastate Caracas
How Trump's withdrawal of Biden-era oil licences, the green transition, and a looming glut threaten Venezuela's petrostate economy and its dirtiest crude.