As the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan came to a close, Americans saw Taliban violence increase as the group took over the country. Was removing the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan the correct policy? Did withdrawing from a vulnerable country...

As the European Union works to maintain a competitive edge economically against Beijing and Moscow, regional cooperation initiatives throughout Europe have taken center stage. The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is one such promising example. 3SI launched in 2015 and...

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus was the rare former Soviet state that remained strategically aligned with the Russian Federation. In 1999, Russia and Belarus reached an agreement to become a “union state,” which aimed to create...

On August 23, the Crimean Platform Summit was held in Ukraine. Announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the initiative has the goal of coordinating international efforts to de-occupy the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by the Russian Federation...

Often referred to as Guinea-Conakry to distinguish itself from nearby Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, as well as the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea, the West African nation of Guinea has an abundance of the world’s most valuable...

The Congo Rainforest is one of, if not the most, important regions in the world for biodiversity and carbon storage. With deforestation leading the Amazon Rainforest to emit more carbon dioxide than it can absorb, the Congo Rainforest is...

On February 8, 2021, U.S. President Joseph Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in a call to continue “close cooperation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.” U.S.-Indian cooperation has strengthened considerably in the past year against...

Sowing discontent and disruption is a tactic that the West has accustomed itself to when dealing with the Kremlin. The Baltic states are in a unique position in the face of these threats. Estonia and Latvia, specifically, have significant...

The Russian state-affiliated private military company known as the Wagner Group has proven adept at leveraging instability or weak institutions to further Russian influence abroad. Throughout 2020, the Russian Federation and Wagner have worked to support and enable Khalifa...

On October 4, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections. Four political parties received enough vote to garner seats in the parliament. Of those four, three were closely aligned with then-President Sooronbay Jeenbekov. The results of the election sparked outrage against the...