RealClearWorld Articles

Following retaliatory strikes on Iran, Israel has entered a new phase of escalation, marking a direct confrontation with Teheran.  The intensifying situation not only risks further destabilizing the region, but also forces the U.S. to become increasingly involved—more than it should be.  For instance, in the same month French President Emmanuel Macron called to halt offensive weapons deliveries to Israel, the Biden administration announced the deployment of 100 U.S. troops to operate the THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) system.  While Macron’s...

There is a push in the U.S. Congress to pass S.4741 Western Balkans Democracy Act, authored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), as part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation comes at a critical time for democracy and governance in the Balkans, which, with U.S. support, must improve throughout the region for the countries to finally join the European Union (EU), thereby permanently stabilizing Europe’s Southeastern flank.   Accompanying this Congressional focus on the Western Balkans and the policies enshrined in the Western Balkans...

The cracks and fissures of Central Asia’s 19th-century Great Game power struggles and political instability remain hidden just below the surface of the region’s deserts. Occasionally, there is a small shift, but enough to allow long-forgotten problems to reveal themselves. Late last month, a Great Game-styled clandestine plot with a potentially destabilizing force occurred in Uzbekistan. Gunmen failed in their assassination attempt against a top national figure in Uzbekistan, Komil Allamjonov, a vocal, pro-democracy reformer, advocate for freedom of speech and the...

Last month, Georgia held its parliamentary election. Over 50 percent of eligible voters participated in the electoral process in Georgia, and thousands of members of the Georgian diaspora cast their ballots as well. According to independent exit polls, the opposition movement and political parties that favored closer ties with the European Union had won the election. Many Georgians celebrated, but Georgian Dream, the ruling party in the Georgian parliament, made a different announcement. Instead of conceding the election, the current ruling party in Georgian parliament announced it had won....

“Congratulations President-elect Donald Trump on your historic election,” British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer posted on X at 3:21am ET on Wednesday. The best that can be said about this tepid concession is that Starmer got his concession in before Kamala Harris. Make no mistake. This is not the result Labour wanted. Starmer’s Labour party was heavily invested in a Harris win and did everything it could to bring it about. On July 4, Starmer won a landslide majority in the House of Commons with the lowest share of the popular vote (33.7 percent) for a winning party since...

If Donald Trump wins the election on Tuesday, he will encounter a Europe far different from the one he knew during his first term both in terms of personnel and policy. A second Trump term could very well be a baptism by fire for new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. After a decade of leadership by Jens Stoltenberg, whom some regarded as a Trump whisperer, NATO has turned to a leader known for being a quiet builder of consensus. The G7 has also seen significant turnover. Think back to the infamous photo from the 2018 summit, wherein German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leaning on a table...

Voters across the pond are quickly realizing what a massive mistake they made by electing Sir Keir Starmer’s far-left, Labour government in the United Kingdom. America, you cannot afford to follow suit. It’s only been three months since the left-wing Labour government took over from the corrupted ‘Conservative’ party and already taxes are soaring, crime – especially in major cities – is rampant, and mass migration continues to climb ever upward. The sleaze in the heart of government is part of our daily conversation, and I can’t help but look...

In a major escalation, the United States hit Houthi targets in Yemen this month with B-2 stealth bombers, perhaps the most sophisticated and expensive platform in the U.S. arsenal. The Air Force only has 19 such bombers and hasn’t used them in combat since 2017. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the raid demonstrated Washington’s ability to “take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”     It also demonstrated, once again, that the U.S. response to the Houthi threat is far costlier than any...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made global headlines by announcing the expulsion of six Indian diplomats. The drastic measure follows serious allegations of India’s repression of and violence against the Indian-Canadian community and interference in Canada’s democratic processes. The accusations are sensational: “Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities.” Canada’s federal policing agency alleges that agents tied to the Indian government commissioned...

Israel’s war against Hezbollah was as inevitable as it was avoidable. Shaken by an unending war in Afghanistan and its concomitant withdrawal, the failure of which will live in eternal infamy, our political leaders over the last two decades came to favor diplomats promising to de-fund, disarm, and contain terror groups. As the world now witnesses the brutal outcome of these choices, it is clear the only path to decisive victory over terror is force. Consider Lebanon. In terms of undermining terror, our leaders barely tried to do so. The diplomatic tradecraft they relied upon failed so...

On November 1, 1954, Algeria ignited a revolution that became a defining moment in the global fight against colonialism. The revolution, spearheaded by the National Liberation Front (FLN), was not only a struggle for national independence from French colonial rule but also a symbol of defiance and self-determination for oppressed nations around the world. Algeria’s eight-year war for independence, which culminated in 1962, inspired revolutionary movements across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, this revolutionary spirit continues to shape Algeria’s role on the global...

Months after Maduro was declared winner of the latest fraudulent Presidential Election in late July – in which the opposition candidates Edmundo González and María Corina Machado were confirmed as the true winners – Brazil, under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, has been attempting to mediate for democratic concessions. Brazil, the biggest country by land mass and population in the region, exercises tremendous influence, and is the largest economic, diplomatic, and military power in Latin America. Through its “neutral approach” to geopolitics,...

Democracy currently hangs in the balance in Georgia. On 26 October, millions of Georgians gathered to vote in the parliamentary elections, and the outcome has come into question. The stakes were high going into this election. Prior to the elections, many Georgians viewed the parliamentary elections as an opportunity for change. The ruling party in the Georgian parliament, Georgian Dream, had a poor favorability rating. Thousands of Georgians also believed that Georgian Dream was out of touch with voters. According to polls conducted independently by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and...

Lost in the 2024 election shuffle, Honduras is walking an economic tightrope. Faced with an unprecedented currency crisis, the country’s response may shape the economic future of Central America for better or worse, with real consequences for the United States that cannot be overlooked. The Honduran currency, the lempira, is weakening dramatically despite the government’s efforts to maintain its value artificially. This Sisyphean task has come at a considerable cost in recent months, with the Honduran government burning through more than $2 billion in foreign currency...

The conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the most complex and prolonged in sub-Saharan Africa, characterised by endemic violence, external interventions, and geopolitical interests involving global and regional powers. Its roots trace back to 2013, when a coup orchestrated by the Islamic rebel group Seleka ousted then-President François Bozizé, sparking a violent response from the Christian anti-Balaka militias. Since then, the country has spiralled into violence, with various armed factions fighting for control over territory and natural resources, such...

With the presidential election mere weeks away, both candidates are going all out to win over swing voters, and their promises are growing increasingly outlandish — some bordering on illegal. While American voters despair that our election politics have devolved into ludicrous gimmicks, Argentina’s Javier Milei continues to show how commitment to democratic principles can still prevail.  On the campaign trail and as president, Milei has unapologetically embraced Western democratic values and classically liberal economics. With Milton Friedman as his north...

Israel confirmed it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on October 17 – just over one year since the group launched a major attack on Israel. His death marks a major moment for the war and the Middle East, with serious geopolitical implications that could reshape the Israel-Palestine conflict and broader regional rivalry between Iran and Israel. That should start with an effort to achieve a real ceasefire and hostage exchange in Gaza, alongside an end to the broader regional war currently underway. Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Sinwar’s killing as a...

On October 21, the plenary of the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, will convene in Paris. Should the organization that sets global standards for countering money laundering and terror finance consider removing the Islamic Republic of Iran from its blacklist, as Tehran hopes, the answer should be a resounding and unequivocal “no.” FATF has previously told Tehran it needs to address technical issues like weak customer due diligence mechanisms; processes for identifying and sanctioning unlicensed money transfer service providers; and ensuring that financial institutions verify...

What is President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s foreign policy plan? That’s a question that few have answers to, but for hundreds of millions of people in the developing world the stakes could not be higher. East Africa faith leaders are raising the alarm. In August, Archbishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande of Mwanza, Tanzania, said the West is “sending us missionaries of evil.”  It is a strange thing for people thousands of miles away to say, yet it is a frequent refrain from Africans, Latin Americans and others frustrated by a White House fixated on the...