Global Politics

The opening shots in the “trade war” between Washington and Beijing have raised concerns around the whole world, causing a heated debate about the logic of the Trump Administration’s policy against China. While most analysis has focussed on the economic effects of the trade war, less discussed has been the dispute’s impact on other areas […]

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While both sides of the aisle, with some exceptions, have vehemently protested Trump’s ‘No Tolerance’ border immigration policy, which has resulted in the separation of thousands of families, the practical and policy consequences have been unprecedented. From executive orders to ultimatums from federal judges, the discourse in DC often overlooks events ‘on the ground’. This video by […]

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Over 10,000 people have died in the war in Yemen, which has entered its fourth year, and about 80 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian aid. Despite the gravity of the situation, Yemen’s conflict, which has been described as the “forgotten war” by Amnesty International, receives very little media coverage. Western news […]

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Mexico’s new president is a brash, politically ambiguous populist who draws many comparisons to Donald Trump. BBC News has five things you need to know about the man who will be engaging with the American leader on some of North America’s most pressing issues. Source: BBC News.

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Last month, two more countries broke away from the fast dwindling assortment of diplomatic allies that officially recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state. The political volte-face in May by the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso in favour of closer ties with Beijing follows a long trend of diplomatic shifts that leave Taiwan increasingly isolated on the […]

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Hilary Benn MP, Chair of the Commons Brexit committee, has always been a great performer in Parliament. Here, he lays into the UK Government’s Brexit strategy, likening it to disembarking from a liner into a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.        

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The withdrawal of the Trump Administration from the Iran nuclear deal was a long time coming. Concluded in 2015 after months of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries (United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany), the agreement seemingly provided a win-win outcome both in terms of the international community’s desire to rein […]

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Following two years of negotiations, a historic agreement that formally establishes the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) was signed on 21 March 2018 by representatives of 44 member states of the African Union in the Rwandan capital. Once adopted, greater market integration on the continent will follow. Global competition is fierce and African nations […]

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By U.S. Department of State from United States [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Authors: Dr Simon A. Waldman is a Mercator-IPC fellow at the Istanbul Policy Center and a visiting research fellow at King’s College London. Engin Onuk is an intern at the İstanbul Policy Center and a masters student in the International Relations Department in İstanbul […]

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The UN Under-Sectretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this week for the first time. Following meetings with internally displaced persons, Lowcock underscored that the DRC is the site of one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in the world today. A year after his term ended, Congolese […]

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A new country is gradually emerging from the desert terrain of Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as the Crown Prince is commonly known, is at the helm. At 32 years of age, Mohammed bin Salman is the youngest minister of defence in the world, and is offering an ambitious programme of economic, religious, […]

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University of Nottingham (Ningbo Campus) Assistant Professor Nicholas Ross Smith argues that while arming Ukraine may be the right thing to do, it naively underestimates the geopolitical reality of Eastern Europe and could result in a far worse outcome for both Ukraine and Europe. Donald Trump’s recent decision to approve the sale of more lethal arms […]

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The decision of municipal authorities in the Croatian cities of Zagreb and Karlovac to remove former Yugoslav president Tito’s name from streets and squares has rekindled the debate over the ruler’s legacy. Here, Tony Fabijančić assesses attitudes for and against Tito, nostalgia for the former Yugoslavia (“Yugonostalgia”), and the ongoing political division between left and […]

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Europe is currently facing a fundamental shift in its approach to armaments procurement: cooperation both between countries and manufacturers in the development and production of armaments is considered the only way forward in the coming decades. With Germany and France representing the vanguard of the European defense industry, the fate of their KANT project symbolizes […]

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The television adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has gripped viewers and political pundits alike, since its release in April 2017, for its astonishingly realistic parallels between the fictional world of Gilead, and the very real Donald Trump led USA. As the global campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence draws to […]

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Zimbabwe has finally toppled its longtime dictator, Robert Mugabe. So it’s time for the the international community to lift its sanctions on the country, right? Wrong. The new leader of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was one of Mugabe’s most notorious henchmen until he fell out of favor a few months ago. It would be premature to […]

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Mass media and politicians often describe terrorism as one of the greatest security threats to international society. These bold claims have contributed towards an unquestioned belief that terrorism has become a grave threat to our everyday lives. The sporadic and murderous nature of terrorism has been a powerful influence on public threat perception. However, the […]

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The international community has been quick to praise Liberia’s presidential elections as marking the country’s first peaceful transition of power in decades, with former football star George Weah taking an early lead in provisional results. This is indeed a remarkable feat for a country that has been ravaged by two civil wars, unexpected slumps in […]

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Earlier this month, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur announced that it was pulling the plug on its partnership with the US Army to develop two promising new Zika vaccines. A Sanofi representative said they could not continue due to, firstly, a decline in infection rates which reduced the number of people available for clinical trials, and, secondly, […]

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I do not pretend to have a silver bullet solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism. A successful strategy against Islamic terrorist organisations would encompass a re-organisation of geopolitical alliances in the Middle East, effective military actions, and socio-economic changes (fairer distribution of resources, better education, etc.) in the majority of Muslim nations. On the […]

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