Rising US-China tensions are having far-reaching ramifications across the international order, stirring up problems not only for western powers, but also for smaller states falling into regions of influence. This includes the Gulf countries, which are increasingly squeezed between the competitive pressure of these great powers. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,…
The leader of the Solomon Islands province of Malaita announced earlier this week that his region will seek independence from the central government due to its disagreement with the capital over the latter’s recognition of Beijing last year as the legitimate government of China, which could dangerously plunge this underdeveloped nation back into a state…
There’s no longer any doubt that India seeks to actively “contain” China after the latest incident between Asia’s two most populous countries over the weekend along the Line of Actual Control, though the resultant trajectory of tensions between them wasn’t an unfortunate turn of events like many have portrayed it as, but an inevitability for…
The critical assessment of China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) last month by the influential Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies coupled with India’s eagerness all summer to court the Eurasian Great Power into joining its so-called “Indo-Pacific” projects have combined to create the impression that Russia might be…
One of the objectives of the Euromaidan coup (Ukraine, 2013-14) was to cut the Silk Road in Europe. China reacted by changing its route and passing it through Belarus. From then on, Minsk tried to protect itself from the same destabilization by pursuing a more balanced policy towards the West, participating in military manoeuvres with…
From 1830 to 1895, the British and Russian empires schemed and plotted over control of Central and South Asia. At the heart of the “Great Game” was the United Kingdom’s certainty that the Russians had designs on India. So wars were fought, borders drawn, and generations of young met death in desolate passes and lonely…
