Azerbaijan’s green shift: Energy transition, COP29 commitments, and US collaboration
Azerbaijan seeks to establish itself as a major actor in the global energy transition space as it prepares to host the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, on November 11-22. COP29 offers many opportunities to improve US-Azerbaijani energy cooperation, including by coordinating the United States’ clean energy technology goals with Azerbaijan’s renewable energy revolution.
Russia’s relations with Hezbollah amid escalation on Lebanon-Israel border
Russia’s concern about an escalation of hostilities in Lebanon reflects its long-standing partnership with Hezbollah. Due to this multidimensional relationship, Russia has urged Iran to exercise restraint against Israel to prevent the outbreak of a destructive hot war in Lebanon.
Algeria’s 2024 presidential elections: Keeping up with populist authoritarianism
Algeria is poised for a presidential election on Sept. 7 that, while seemingly predetermined, reveals the complexities of a political landscape profoundly shaped by popular disillusionment following the failure of the 2019 Hirak protest movement. Five years on, incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune is promising a second term based on the “continuation of the social state,” but his attempt to renew a social contract based on populist promises of a neoliberal economic renewal is colliding with the lack of institutional reforms necessary to achieve them.
After the Cold War, the Romanian government chose to slim down its sizeable defense industry, but it essentially maintained its state-backed structure, personnel, and management, thus producing a thoroughly inefficient system. Today, Romania retains a proclivity to purchase Western, and particularly American, defense equipment; but it has often neglected any thorough assessments of life cycle costs or real force design considerations.
Pakistan’s shifting positions on the plight of Palestinians and relations with Israel
It is ironic that Pakistan and Israel are both countries created in the name of religion, at around the same time, and yet they have no formal relations. While Pakistan’s animosity toward Israel is rooted in the displacement of Palestinians, it has also served as a means of burnishing the country’s credentials within the community of Muslim nations and pushing back against India, which maintains increasingly close ties with Israel.
For nearly two decades, Palestinian leadership has been fractured. Along with a basic division between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, numerous other groups have competed for influence. In late July, leaders of all 14 Palestinian political factions, including Fatah and Hamas, met in Beijing to issue a call for national unity.
Brokering a solution to the Libyan Central Bank crisis
The ongoing effort by various factions in Libya to gain control of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) poses a clear and present danger for the entire country, threatening its safety and security as well as its economy.
Pezeshkian’s presidency is Khamenei’s Hail Mary moment
It is critical to understand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s plans for the presidency of Masoud Pezeshkian at this moment in time. Changing course is a necessity for a regime beset by a long list of ailments, many of which are rooted in Tehran’s foreign policy choices. For Khamenei, Pezeshkian will not be as much of an instigator of change as he will be an implementor of policy shifts that the leader deems necessary.
Securing the quantum future: The imperative for global collaboration
As China makes substantial strides in quantum R&D, the global community must urgently address vulnerabilities in our digital networks. The Middle East, like many other regions, stands at a critical juncture in this technological race, where quantum innovation brings both opportunities and risks.
After Hezbollah’s retaliation, no broader war for now, but the conflict drags on
On Aug. 25, Hezbollah retaliated for Israel’s assassination of senior commander Fuad Shukr on July 30, launching 340 rockets and tens of drones from southern Lebanon and the eastern Beka’a region. Hezbollah’s retaliation started shortly after Israel undertook what it called a “preemptive strike,” in which 100 fighter jets targeted Hezbollah military sites, including rocket launching platforms, to thwart a larger attack that, according to Israeli officials, involved up to 6,000 rockets.
