Phase one flop. Chinese imports from the U.S. in 2020 fell far short of Beijing’s purchasing commitments in the “phase one” trade deal inked last January. Chinese customs data suggests China fulfilled just around 58 percent of its purchasing targets for the year. The deal was never going to fundamentally address core U.S.-China trade issues anyway. South Asian vaccine diplomacy. India, […]
The standoff over Western Sahara is Africa’s longest ongoing conflict. Covering 266,000 square kilometers and with a population of some 600,000 people, the disputed...
Background: Russia consolidated its dominance in the South Caucasus late last year when it mediated between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh...
Killing Keystone. U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order to revoke the permit that would allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline between...
Pipeline roadblocks. Russian energy giant Gazprom has warned that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project could be suspended or scrapped because of political pressure...
Chinese growth. China’s economy ended last year as if nothing interesting happened in 2020. Fourth-quarter growth registered at a brisk 6.5 percent year on...
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic Revolution ended Iran's nearly five centuries of uninterrupted imperial rule. But it continued the Persian tradition of territorial expansionism...
