Governance
Nepal’s Government Tried to Ban Social Media. Days Later, the Prime Minister Was Gone. The Protests Were Never Really Just About Social Media.
Nepal has just experienced one of the most dramatic political upheavals in South Asia in years. What began with anger over the government’s decision to block major social-media platforms rapidly developed into a much broader…
Four Years After the Taliban Returned to Power, Afghanistan Is More Stable and Less Free. That Combination Is Exactly Why the Regime Is Difficult to Understand.
Four years have now passed since the final American military forces left Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, completing a withdrawal that ended twenty years of US-led military involvement and allowed the Taliban to consolidate control…
Trump Says America Will Help Guarantee Ukraine’s Security. That May Be More Important Than the Territory Ukraine Eventually Loses or Keeps.
The diplomatic atmosphere around Ukraine has changed considerably in only one week. After Donald Trump’s Alaska meeting with Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington on 18 August accompanied by an unusually powerful…
More Western Governments Are Moving Towards Recognising Palestine. Recognition Cannot Create a State by Itself, but Refusing Recognition Until a Perfect State Already Exists Creates Its Own Circular Problem.
The diplomatic argument over Palestinian statehood is changing rapidly. France has announced that it intends to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Britain has said it will recognise Palestine…
Thailand and Cambodia Are Fighting Over Their Border. It Is a Reminder That a Line Drawn More Than a Century Ago Can Still Become More Politically Valuable Than the Land Around It.
Thailand and Cambodia are now experiencing their worst military confrontation in more than a decade. Fighting erupted on 24 July along their disputed frontier and rapidly expanded across several locations, with artillery, rockets and ground…
The Epstein Files Are Becoming a Political Problem for Trump. The Bigger Story Is What Happens When a Movement Built on Distrust of Institutions Finally Controls the Institutions It Said Were Hiding the Truth.
The controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein has returned to the centre of American politics, but this time the political pressure is coming substantially from within Donald Trump’s own coalition. For years, parts of the American right…
Trump Has Sent the National Guard Into Los Angeles Against California’s Wishes. The Immigration Debate Is Becoming a Much Larger Argument About Who Actually Controls the State.
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has produced its first major confrontation between the federal government and one of America’s largest Democratic-controlled states. Federal immigration raids across Los Angeles beginning on Friday triggered protests around detention facilities…
Poland’s Nationalist Candidate Has Won the Presidency by Less Than Two Percentage Points. Europe Should Pay Attention to the 50–50 Country Emerging Across the Continent.
Poland has just completed one of the closest elections in its democratic history. Conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki, backed by the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), has defeated Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski in the presidential…
Poland Votes Again Next Week. The Election Is Really About Whether Winning Government Is Enough When Your Opponents Still Control Institutions Capable of Stopping You.
Poland is heading towards an extraordinarily close presidential runoff on 1 June between Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki, after neither candidate won a majority in the first round on 18…
Romania Just Chose a Pro-European President Over the Nationalist Right. But Winning 54–46 Is Not the Same Thing as Defeating the Politics That Produced the 46.
Romania has just completed one of the strangest and most consequential presidential elections in modern European politics. Nicușor Dan, the independent, pro-European mayor of Bucharest, has defeated nationalist George Simion in today’s presidential runoff after…
Trump Wants Interest Rates Lower and Says Powell’s “Termination Cannot Come Fast Enough”. The Bigger Question Is Why Democracies Deliberately Give Unelected Central Bankers So Much Power.
Donald Trump’s confrontation with the Federal Reserve has intensified sharply. After Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned this week that Trump’s tariffs could produce higher inflation and weaker growth, Trump accused him of being too…
Germany Is Preparing to Borrow Hundreds of Billions for Defence and Infrastructure. The Bigger Change Is That Europe’s Largest Economy Has Decided Fiscal Restraint Can Become a Security Risk.
Germany has approved one of the largest changes to its fiscal architecture since reunification. On 21 March, the Bundesrat approved constitutional changes previously passed by the Bundestag that will loosen Germany’s famous debt brake for…
