Analysis

Analysis offers a new angle on a contemporary or historical issue. These articles are policy-oriented and cover current developments around the globe that impinge upon American foreign policy and national security priorities.

Mnangagwa vs Chiwenga: The Existential Battle for Power in Zimbabwe

2017: The Coup that Wasn’t  The November 2017 military move in Zimbabwe that marked the end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule opened a completely new phase in the southern African country’s troubled politics. Although the military leadership insisted that...

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Dark Eagle in the Desert: Considerations for Deploying LRHW to CENTCOM

This piece is part of Behind the Front, an FPRI project on the future of US and allied national defense. At the end of April, Gerry Doyle at Bloomberg reported that CENTCOM had requested the deployment of Dark Eagle...

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The Golden Fleet on Paper: Ambition Meets Strategic Contradiction

This piece is part of Behind the Front, an FPRI project on the future of US and allied national defense. The new US Navy Shipbuilding Plan has arrived. It is lavishly produced, rich in operational color, and bracingly confident...

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Can the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) Revitalize Zimbabwe’s Economy?

Introduction  Zimbabwe created a US dollar-denominated exchange in Victoria Falls, the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), to offer issuers and investors a rules-based “hard currency land” for capital raising and secondary trading, in an environment where domestic currency instability...

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Scaling Patriot Production: The Industrial Base Crisis Explained

This piece is part of Behind the Front, an FPRI project on the future of US and allied national defense. On April 10, after coalition forces had fired at least 1,700 Patriots in just five weeks, the Pentagon announced...

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Bulgaria’s Difficult Road to Political Stability      

As many in Central and Eastern Europe were emerging from the buoyant aftermath of Hungary’s mid-April 2026 elections, less than 500 miles southeast of Budapest another consequential national plebiscite transpired. On April 19, a mere week after the watershed...

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Why Niger Can Seize Uranium but Cannot Sell It

More than 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium sit at Airbase 101 adjacent to Niamey’s international airport, loaded onto trucks that have not moved in weeks, a convoy that has become a defining image of a world order in...

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Russia After Putin

Vladimir Putin, 73, has been Russia’s leader for over a quarter of a century and the driving force behind Moscow’s efforts to reassert control over its former Soviet and Tsarist empire. His eventual departure from the world stage will...

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Hungarian Elections: Ramifications for Central Europe

As the dust settles and the euphoria ebbs on the historic mid-April 2026 elections in Hungary, the consequences of Tisza’s resounding victory over Victor Orban’s Fidesz party will start to manifest to the north of Budapest, specifically in Poland,...

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Japan and the Quest for Its New Normal

Japan’s hands have been tied militarily since it embraced a pacifist constitution in 1947, and the national debate to reassess its defense capabilities is intensifying amid the sweeping shifts in the global security landscape. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took...

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