Geopolitics

Russian troops have infiltrated the Donbas gateway. Ukraine says it still controls the city. KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine. Russian forces have infiltrated the strategic city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine and are trying to surround it, according to Ukrainian soldiers and military observers who describe a battlefield situation that is more fluid and dangerous than official statements […]

Israel fears Trump has handed Iran the keys to Lebanon Israel’s government is alarmed that the Trump administration’s interim deal with Iran has effectively legitimized Tehran’s influence in Lebanon and eroded Israel’s freedom of military action there, according to two Israeli sources who spoke with Axios. The fear is not abstract. Under the terms of […]

The White House is talking differently about Ukraine. The question is whether it means anything. After a year of cold shoulders and cutting remarks, top U.S. officials have started sounding almost supportive of Ukraine. As Foreign Policy’s Sam Skove reports, Ukrainian gains on the battlefield may be propelling a mood change among Trump administration officials, […]

Money flows, inspectors wait: Iran deal advances on one track, stalls on another The Iran deal moved forward on money and slid backward on trust Tuesday, as the United States formally waived oil sanctions while Iran’s foreign ministry insisted it made “no new commitments” on nuclear inspections. The contradictory signals are baked into the architecture […]

Three fronts, one process: Iran deal gains momentum on inspections, truce, and Gulf diplomacy BURGENSTOCK, Switzerland. The Iran deal moved forward on three separate fronts Monday and Tuesday, in what may be the most coordinated sequence of diplomatic activity since the war began 115 days ago. Vice President JD Vance announced from a Swiss mountaintop […]

The Iran deal Trump signed may be the prelude to the next war The memorandum of understanding that President Trump signed with Iran last week ended 115 days of open war. But as Foreign Policy’s Daniel Byman argues in a new analysis, the agreement may be better understood as an intermission. Byman, a Georgetown professor […]

Britain prepares for its seventh prime minister in a decade LONDON. Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street on Monday morning. He did what British prime ministers have been doing with alarming regularity for ten years: he resigned. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party,” Starmer said, his voice breaking near […]

This is a follow-up to this morning’s article on Trump threatening from Washington as Vance met Iran in Switzerland (trump-threats-vance-talks-switzerland). What follows is the next chapter in that story. The diplomatic process set in motion at the Burgenstock resort has produced two closely related outcomes in quick succession: a formal 60-day roadmap toward a final […]

China Hits Back: Beijing Sanctions 10 US Defense Companies, Excludes 46 Others From Government Procurement in Retaliation for Pentagon Blacklist China imposed sweeping sanctions on Monday against American defense and industrial firms, retaliating for the Pentagon’s recent decision to add major Chinese technology companies to its blacklist of military-linked entities. The coordinated countermeasures, announced simultaneously […]

Ukraine Launches TrophyLab Platform to Share Captured Russian Weapons Intelligence with Allies Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has launched TrophyLab, an access-controlled online platform that provides allied governments, defense companies, and research institutions with technical intelligence gathered from captured Russian military hardware. The initiative, announced June 19 by Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, represents a systematic effort […]