Last week, the U.N. Security Council met to discuss its Libya mission and its new plan to end the country’s political impasse through elections. While credible polls will be a critical step in forging a path to peace, they are not a panacea for… Read more
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have moved to restrict social freedoms, with a persistent focus on the rights of women and girls. Two edicts issued in December 2022, indefinitely banning Afghan women from attending… Read more
In the decade leading up to Mali’s two military coups in 2020 and 2021, persistent governance grievances had left civilians without reliable public services while the military struggled to contain violent extremist groups. Hopes for a quick return to… Read more
Myanmar’s coup regime, whose principal strategy for dealing with the country’s resistance movement is blunt, unrelenting brutality, benefits from three misconceptions prevalent in the international community: First, that consolidation of the military’s… Read more
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps landing at Cape Torokina in Bougainville following hard-won and pivotal battles in Solomon Islands. Despite the region’s strategic importance during World War II, in the post-war period the… Read more
After months of fanfare about holding elections in August 2023, Myanmar’s junta chief, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, suddenly changed course. On February 1, he extended the junta’s illegitimate rule by another six months acknowledging that the military does not… Read more
Top Iraqi officials were in Washington this week for the regular dialogue of the Higher Coordinating Committee of the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA). Inked in 2008, the SFA sets the terms for U.S.-Iraqi cooperation in a number of arenas,… Read more
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Fuad Hussein on February 10 laid out the new Iraqi government’s priorities, outlined areas of common interest with the United States and defended his country’s relations with Iran, Russia and China — countries that are all at… Read more
Executive SummaryThe countries of Coastal West Africa are currently facing significant challenges to peace and security as extremist violence spills over from the neighboring Sahel region. Attacks in 2022 in the northern parts of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire,… Read more
The ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 was brought about using the tools of nonviolent action, including massive protests and nationwide strikes. Yet the transition that followed showed that initiating change through nonviolent… Read more
The eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been the site of decades of conflict between the Congolese army and nonstate armed groups. The region’s conflict dynamics are profoundly affected by the combatants’ exploitation of… Read more
The sudden crisis around Russia threatens democratic norms and energy markets worldwide, only heightening the urgency of stabilizing Iraq, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer. Yet five months after Iraq’s elections, held in response to massive… Read more