Commentary

Japan’s Immigration Policy and the Kurdish Population

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...

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Erosion of the Norm of Using Chemical Weapons

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...

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Strengthening Pacific Security: US Shiprider Agreements

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)....

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Lithuania’s Political Shift: Domestic and Foreign Policy

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...

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Lithuania’s Parliamentary Elections: Domestic and Foreign Policy

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...

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Contesting Russia: The Baltic Perspective

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...

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Toward a Balanced Approach: How Should the US Engage With An Increasingly Powerful Rwanda?

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...

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Russia’s Information War in Moldova

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...

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An Armed Russian Drone Shakes Latvia’s Defense System

On the morning of September 7, an armed Russian kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) landed in Gaigalava parish in Eastern Latvia. The UAV was a Shahed 136-type drone of Iranian descent, which Russia uses widely in its war in...

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The BRICS Challenge to the G7 Established International Order

G7 and BRICS The G7, led by the United States in the Global North, and BRICS, led by China in the Global South, are each working diligently to control the rules-based international order. To better understand this competition, it...

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