Commentary

Cyber operations are now a defining feature of modern warfare, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated—and China is taking note. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has served as a testing ground for the integration of emerging technologies...

For a document intended to carefully outline relations with a key US partner while navigating a region’s complex history and geopolitical realities, eight pages seem brief. Enacted in 1979 in response to the US switch in recognition from the...

In a 2024 article on Japan’s changing refugee policy in the Asia-Pacific Journal, Maximilien Xavier Rehm, a researcher at Doshisha University, argues that “Japan’s recent shift to grant more asylum seekers protection can be...

The global norm against chemical weapons, bolstered by international disarmament initiatives and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), stands as a pillar of modern arms control. This treaty has achieved remarkable successes, including the elimination of 97 percent of the...

Shiprider Agreements and the US Coast Guard Early last year, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) cutter Harriet Lane, with Vanuatu maritime law enforcement officials on board, conducted an expeditionary patrol that moved through Vanuatu’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)....

In October 2024, Lithuania’s opposition Social Democratic Party (LSDP) emerged victorious in the parliamentary elections, defeating the center-right Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (HU-LCD), which had been in power since 2020. The Social Democrats secured 52 seats, while...

Lithuania’s Governing Coalition Battered in a General Election Lithuania’s general election has resulted in a crushing defeat for the incumbent center-right government, led by Ingrida Šimonytė. The largest party of the outgoing governing coalition, the Homeland Union, lost nearly...

This week, Dr. Indra Ekmanis participated in a US Helsinki Commission briefing, “Contesting Russia: Lessons from Central & Eastern Europe.” Read her opening remarks below as she highlights how the Baltic states play an essential role in shaping a...

Rwanda—the small, landlocked country in East Africa known colloquially as the “land of a thousand hills”—has arguably gained outsized influence in Africa in recent years. Previously known most prominently for the horrors enacted against ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus...

Introduction Historically, Russia has done everything it can to keep countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union in its so-called “sphere of influence” as far from the West’s orbit as possible. However, in recent years, some of...