Governance
Kabul Has Fallen. Twenty Years of War Ended in a Week.
There will undoubtedly be an argument that America gave Afghanistan twenty years, enormous amounts of money and a military, and Afghans simply failed to use them. That explanation absolves the foreign power almost perfectly. It…
Five Provincial Capitals in Three Days. Afghanistan Is Starting to Look Very Different.
Last Sunday, I wrote that the Taliban was beginning to test whether Afghanistan’s government could defend major cities without large numbers of foreign troops. Seven days later, that test is already producing answers. And they…
America Is Leaving Afghanistan. The Taliban Isn’t Waiting.
In April, when President Biden announced that American troops would leave Afghanistan, I wrote that there would probably never be a perfect moment to withdraw. I still think that. But four months later, watching what…
Haiti’s President Was Assassinated. Who Governs the Country Now?
Since then, Haitian authorities have arrested a number of suspects, including former Colombian soldiers, while several others were killed by police. Investigators are still trying to determine who organised the operation and why. Those questions…
Ethiopia Declared Victory. Seven Months Later, It Lost Mekelle.
For months, forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had continued fighting the Ethiopian military and its allies despite the federal government’s capture of Mekelle last November. Recently, those Tigrayan forces launched a major…
Diplomacy in Suspension: Negotiation Without Trust and Power Without Resolution
This week’s international developments reveal a global order increasingly defined by suspended outcomes. Diplomacy persists, negotiations resume, alliances deepen, and crises are managed, yet rarely resolved. I observe that states are engaging not to close…
The Limits of Moral Diplomacy
This week’s developments across West Asia and Europe reveal a persistent contradiction at the heart of contemporary international politics: the growing invocation of law, norms, and accountability without a corresponding willingness to impose consequences on…
Ceasefires, Credibility, and the Politics of Restraint
This week in global affairs is marked less by dramatic escalation and more by deliberate restraint. Across regions, states signal a preference for managing tensions rather than resolving them outright, relying on ceasefires, calibrated diplomacy,…
Disengagement, Legitimacy, and the Limits of Resolution
This week, international politics is shaped less by dramatic breakthroughs than by careful recalibration. I observe a pattern in which states seek to lower immediate risk without resolving deeper disputes, prioritising manageability over settlement. From…
America Returns, Red Lines Harden, and Diplomacy Is Put on Trial
This week marks a recalibration rather than a rupture in international politics. I observe that power is not being redistributed so much as rearticulated, through language, posture, and the reassertion of norms that had appeared…
Justice, Legitimacy, and the Limits of Institutional Authority
This week, international affairs reveal a recurring tension between legal process and moral legitimacy, highlighting how judicial decisions, public health governance, and political accountability increasingly spill across borders. I observe that institutions, whether courts, regional…
Transitions, Thawing Tensions, and Strategic Positioning in Global Politics
This week, global politics reflects the complex interplay of power transitions, regional diplomacy, and strategic signaling, illustrating how domestic events often ripple into the international arena. In the United States, the finalization of the November…
