The November 23 attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, is the latest sign that anti-Chinese sentiment may be taking root in countries that have received massive inflows of investment from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. USIP’s new… Read more
Burma’s natural resource economy is inextricably tied to the ongoing armed conflict within the country. Questions of who has what ownership rights over what resources and how these resources can be more equitably shared with the wider population loom… Read more
Since the demise of its military dictatorship in the late 1990s, Nigeria has made remarkable democratic progress. Still, widespread corruption bedevils the country—which in many respects presents its biggest policy challenge and its biggest threat to… Read more
Like Washington, Beijing has an abiding strategic interest in promoting stability and security in Nigeria—the largest economy in Africa, a major oil and gas producer, and on track to become the world’s third most populous country by 2050. Yet from the… Read more
In October 2017, the United States lifted a wide range of economic sanctions that had been in place against Sudan for two decades. Aly Verjee, a visiting expert at the United States Institute of Peace, recently interviewed roughly 50 Sudanese—including… Read more
The Afghan government has recently embarked on important reforms to the national budget, embodied in the 2018 budget approved by Parliament early this year. This budget sets in motion an envisaged two-year reform process to achieve greater overall… Read more
This report focuses on Chinese involvement and investment in Nigeria’s railway sector and the intersection of planned projects and regional security dynamics. Examining the role of Chinese loan finance and state-owned enterprises in Nigeria’s transition… Read more
Yemen is facing an acute humanitarian crisis after nearly three years of civil war, with more than 10,000 deaths and three-quarters of the country’s population in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Although eschewing a leadership role, China has… Read more
The world’s newest country, South Sudan, is also the least electrified. A period of growth that began after a 2005 peace deal and continued after independence in 2011, saw billions of dollars in oil revenue and strong international support. This period… Read more
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—which connects China’s western province of Xinjiang to the Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coastline in Balochistan province—is the first large-scale attempt to bolster economic ties between Beijing and Islamabad, after… Read more
Sino-Russian alignment in support of the Assad government in Syria is driven primarily by the mutual goal of preventing regime change and halting the spread of Islamic extremism. However, because Chinese strategic priorities lie elsewhere and Russia’s… Read more
As China’s role in global political and economic affairs has expanded, so has its exposure to international and domestic terrorism. At the same time, it is constrained in its response by two long-held principles—nonintervention and noninterference. This… Read more