Recent Houthi piracy attacks heighten global maritime security concerns in the Red Sea, despite international efforts of deterrence. The issue of maritime security and insecurity in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb area is primarily tied to Yemen’s militarized islands. Since 2015, Yemeni islands are mostly controlled, as for its coastline, by armed groups:…

Electoral events refer to issues, problems, or challenges that influence elections and voters’ choices. Inherent in the democratic process, they vary depending on the political, economic, social and cultural context of a particular country. In short, they often include issues of democracy, transparency, access to information, political participation, representativeness, good governance, human rights, and so…

European countries have a history of differing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Recent disagreements among EU leaders highlight the complexity of the issue, but a political solution necessitates the involvement of various stakeholders. The recent ‘cacophony’ of EU voices – as some defined it – over the Israel-Gaza conflict should not come as a surprise.…

Following the attack launched on Saturday 7 October by Hamas militiamen against Israel, diplomats from all over the world have expressed the positions of their respective states on the incident and, more generally, on the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the Asia-Pacific region, one of the first actors to intervene in support of Israel was Narendra…

In September, the United States undertook a series of initiatives aimed at reviving its complex relationship with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The latter, in fact, has not appeared among the priorities of the American Administration for some time, which does not mention Pakistan in any of the latest strategic documents produced, including the strategy…

What happened in Gabon on 30 August was only the latest coup attempt in Africa, a continent that has seen eight in the last three years. The first took place in Mali, a country that suffered two coups in nine months between 2020 and 2021, while the last one before Gabon’s took place in Niger.…

Three countries visited. Cooperation contracts. The intention is to get out of a state of political and economic isolation imposed by Western sanctions. Last 12 and 13 July, a delegation, made up of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif and businessmen and led by the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, visited the African continent,…

“Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages”.  That’s Samuel Johnson in November 1758 writing in his The Idler essays for the London Weekly about the growing role of journalists – ‘news-writers’.  You wonder what he might have made…

Africa is responsible for only 4% of CO2 emissions but is suffering enormous agricultural and health damage. It is proposed to provide help by taxing multinationals and the consumption of the richest countries. Climate change is making its effects felt on humanity, affecting the cornerstones of survival and social organization. But accountability and consequences don’t…

The sustainability of the energy sector and the search for clean and low-carbon energy technologies are the basis of the European Union’s strategy on energy policy which has as its main objective the so-called carbon “neutrality” by 2050. Europe, in addition to increasing the domestic production of clean energy, aims to diversify its import basket,…

The expanding presence of China-based companies in Latin America, and the security problems they have experienced there, create an inherent demand for Chinese private security companies. The enormous expansion of global engagement by China and its companies over the past two decades has generated a corresponding need to protect Chinese operations and personnel in the…

To facilitate its Arctic ambitions, China aims to increase bilateral influence over its Arctic pariah, Russia. China’s northernmost tip is over 1,400 km south of the Arctic Circle. It sees the mass of sea, ice, and land as a new strategic frontier, and as Arctic space becomes increasingly critical for infrastructure and defense, China has…