A spike in oil prices as a result of a temporary halt in shipments through the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait may be short-lived, but the impact on Yemen’s three-year-old forgotten war is likely to put the devastating conflict on the front burner. The halt following a Saudi assertion that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen…
The Horn of Africa might be most infamous for the pirates that lurk along its coastline, capturing oil tankers and holding their crews to ransom. Yet the region is rapidly assuming global political significance, its internal tensions both fuelling and exacerbating a race among foreign powers to gain influence. Observers worry that this modern-day scramble…
The Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Turkey, the unrest in Iran, the civil war in Syria, the US exit from the “nuclear deal” with Tehran, the military actions in Yemen and the situation in Afghanistan attract the attention of international media. In addition, in many regions of the Middle East the situation is no less…
The official end of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea has the chance of ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity for what has up until this point been one of the tensest and most impoverished parts of Africa. The fast-moving Ethiopian-Eritrean rapprochement culminated in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visiting President Isaias Afwerki and…
Nicaragua passing a law that allows 10 different armed forces to train on its territory. President Ortega’s decree grants “servicemen, aircraft, and vessels from Russia, the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Taiwan the right “to stay on the territory of Nicaragua for humanitarian purposes, with the goal to…
Increased Pakistani dependence on China to help it avert resorting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a financial and economic crisis spotlights fears that the terms of Chinese investment in massive Belt and Road-related projects would not pass international muster. Concerns that China’s US$ 50 billion plus investment in Pakistani infrastructure and energy,…
