In recent weeks, the Solomon Islands' allegiance to Taiwan appeared shaky as mainland China sought to coax the island nation into its camp. The strategically located Pacific Islands are a soft-power battleground between the U.S. and China; here, we take a closer look at the evolution of aid - a key tool for maintaining allegiances - to these islands between 2011 and 2017.
Earlier this month, Argentine President Mauricio Macri lost presidential primary elections to opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez, leaving Macri’s chances of winning reelection in doubt. The result came amid high inflation and a struggling economy, which Macri had tried to address using a series of austerity measures.
Every day, roughly one-third of the world's seaborne oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. But mounting tensions threaten to disrupt traffic through the strategic waterway.
The global inventory of nuclear warheads has been decreasing since the mid-1980s. Still, there are thousands of warheads deployed and stockpiled around the world, and only two countries account for 90 percent of them.
In our 2019 forecast, we predicted the United States and the Taliban would reach a deal in Afghanistan and that before the end of the year Washington would announce a schedule for withdrawing the bulk of its forces. That forecast seems roughly on track, but the year is only halfway over, and there is a long way to go.
The Geopolitics of the American President