Ever since his first term in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has sought a broad reset of national strategy, relations and intervention in Africa owing to France’s complicated and chequered historical legacy in the continent.
Over the past two decades Iraq has been affected by several waves of intense conflict and violence. The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition led by the United States and United Kingdom toppled the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein. It also ushered in years of chaos and civil war, as a variety of armed groups vied for power and territory and targeted coalition forces and the fledgling post-Ba’athist Iraqi Army. A period of relative calm in the early 2010s was broken by the rise of the extremist Islamic State group, which occupied large parts of the country from 2014 until it was largely defeated by Iraqi forces with the support of a US-led international coalition in 2017.
With negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme stalled, international monitoring abilities degraded, and China now mediating between Saudi Arabia and Iran, what options do the US and Europe have for containing Tehran?
On March 10, Chinese President and Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping brokered a surprise agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries, effectively knocking the US off the Middle Eastern chessboard and showing himself as a power-broker on the world stage.
Over the last decade, partnerships with developing countries have become central to China’s geostrategic objectives. In Africa specifically, China has made significant investments to secure favorable media coverage to promote a positive view of China, to counter the influence of the United States, and to assert and normalize China’s territorial claims over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and other contested areas. This report examines China’s investments in Africa’s media sector, assesses their effect, and makes recommendations for how the United States can respond to China’s influence campaigns.
CENTCOM commander Michael “Erik” Kurilla told Congress about ongoing ‘aggressive’ behavior by Russian pilots, following the downing of a US MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea.
Russian combat pilots have been flying weapons-laden attack aircraft over US bases in Syria with increasing frequency over the past several weeks, in what Pentagon officials suspect is part of a wider pattern of deliberate provocation.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Egypt, both countries announced Friday, the first such high-level trip in more than a decade as their leaders repair relations damaged in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.
Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week, offering a major diplomatic boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day the International Criminal Court announced it wants to put the Russian leader on trial for alleged war crimes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may finally get a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as soon as next week. The expected discussion follows Beijing’s release of a position paper for Ukraine on February 24—the one-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy, however, should be wary about what Xi truly seeks, namely the mitigation of criticism about Beijing’s role in the conflict and a platform to sell his Global Security Initiative (GSI), for which Beijing released a concept paper just days before releasing its position paper. As such, it is critical that Zelenskyy provide his honest public assessment of Beijing’s peace plan and role in the conflict—otherwise, he risks giving Beijing the perfect cover to refute questions about its alleged neutrality while doing little to ensure an outcome to the crisis that actually works for Ukraine.
The architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq had grand visions of transforming the Middle East in favour of U.S. interests. Two decades later, it is clear that the venture was a failure not just in that respect, but in most others as well.