Geopolitics

In June, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone south of Yonaguni Island, was challenged by the Japan Coast Guard, and responded with two words it had never used there before: “routine patrol.” The exchange, reported by Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, marks a new phase in Beijing’s maritime pressure on […]

President Trump has approved a landmark civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, a 30-year pact worth tens of billions of dollars, that omits the key nonproliferation restriction known as the “gold standard.” The deal is expected to be formally signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday. The timing could hardly be worse for the […]

The night shift workers at the Wildberries warehouse in Kotovsk did not know their employer had been designated a military target. Seven of them are dead. Dozens more were injured. In Elektrostal, another warehouse hit the same weekend, one more worker was killed. The strike was part of a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign that has […]

Brussels is once again trying to push through its 21st sanctions package against Russia. And once again, internal divisions are making it difficult. EU ambassadors met Wednesday in what diplomats described as another attempt to sign off on a package that has already failed to reach unanimity in previous rounds. The proposed measures target 215 […]

The war with Iran was sold as a surgical operation to stop nuclear proliferation. But its effects are spreading far beyond the Middle East, and the picture emerging is not one Washington will like. A War on the Rocks analysis published Tuesday examines how the conflict is reshaping U.S. relations with five key countries: South […]

Donald Trump has a new formula for the Iran war: every time Tehran fires on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will destroy an Iranian bridge or a power plant. “Next week it gets really bad for them,” the president said in a Fox News interview that aired Tuesday night. “We’re […]

Every war produces two inventories: what each side has, and what each side cannot get. For Russia, the biggest gap is filled by China, but the partnership that sustains Moscow’s war effort has hard limits. For Ukraine, the gap is leadership, and the country just bet on a commander who promises accountability over hierarchy. The […]

Iran executed three men this week, and the judiciary used the occasion to warn the country about “infiltrators.” The message was clear: the war with the United States and Israel is not the only fight the regime is waging. Mehdi Khanaki was put to death Wednesday after a revolutionary court convicted him of being an […]

Ukraine has a new commander-in-chief, and his first public message was not about holding ground. Mykhailo Drapatyi, a 43-year-old major general known to his men as “The Flying BMP,” said Ukraine would escalate retaliation against Russia. The appointment comes at a moment when the political ground beneath Kyiv is shifting in ways that have nothing […]

For the 11th straight night, American warplanes hit Iran. What began as a limited campaign to keep the Strait of Hormuz open has become something else entirely: a sustained bombing operation against a country the US is not formally at war with, named after a nuclear site the president announced on television. Donald Trump said […]