World Politics Review

The Iran War Is Putting Trump’s European Fans in a Bind Responses by regional governments have so far been fractured and self-serving, revealing the range of interests at stake.

The states on NATO’s eastern flank are backing Washington because they believe their security depends on it.

But as the conflict in the Middle East drags on, that belief is running headlong into an uncomfortable reality, @amandamcoakley.bsky.social writes.

Pakistan’s Security Broker Aspirations Hit Speedbumps in the Gulf As Islamabad aims to transition toward a major military role in the Middle East, regional rivalries could constrain its ambitions.

As Pakistan aims to transition toward a major military role in the Middle East, the war in Iran has handed it both an opportunity and a dilemma.

The Third Gulf War Is Bringing the AI Cloud Back Down to Earth With its redundant data centers and distributed networks, the cloud is an effort to make geography irrelevant. But that was always an illusion.

The architecture of the digital cloud is an effort to make geography irrelevant.

But as Candace Rondeaux writes, the cloud is hosted in buildings. Buildings sit on territory. And territory has a way of attracting geopolitics.

War and Disorder Are Mobilizing the Middle East’s Middle Powers A loosely aligned “statist Quad”—Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey—is trying to actively coordinate on the region’s most volatile crises.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is accelerating a quiet realignment among the region’s middle powers, who have concluded that the luxury of strategic inaction has vanished.

Does the Lawlessness of the Iran War Matter? An overarching question is whether the laws of war even matter when powerful states seem able to do as they please with little consequence.

In her latest column for WPR, @charlicarpenter.bsky.social examines the legal dimensions of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran—and explains why those questions still matter today.

The Iran War Is Putting Trump’s European Fans in a Bind Responses by regional governments have so far been fractured and self-serving, revealing the range of interests at stake.

The war with Iran has not so much created new divisions in Central and Eastern Europe as sharpened the tensions that were already present, columnist @amandamcoakley.bsky.social writes.

Pakistan’s Security Broker Aspirations Hit Speedbumps in the Gulf As Islamabad aims to transition toward a major military role in the Middle East, regional rivalries could constrain its ambitions.

Pakistan has been quietly positioning itself as a major security player in the Middle East.

Regional rivalries, and a war on its doorstep, could constrain those ambitions, Jonathan Fenton-Harvey writes.

The Third Gulf War Is Bringing the AI Cloud Back Down to Earth With its redundant data centers and distributed networks, the cloud is an effort to make geography irrelevant. But that was always an illusion.

The same logic that makes the Gulf attractive for data centers also makes it a battlefield, Candace Rondeaux writes in her latest column for WPR.

War and Disorder Are Mobilizing the Middle East’s Middle Powers A loosely aligned “statist Quad”—Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey—is trying to actively coordinate on the region’s most volatile crises.

Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have converged on a shared interest: preventing the kind of state fragmentation that their rivals have been exploiting.

Their goals are now being tested by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Does the Lawlessness of the Iran War Matter? An overarching question is whether the laws of war even matter when powerful states seem able to do as they please with little consequence.

@charlicarpenter.bsky.social writes in her latest column for WPR that the picture on the legalities of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is more complicated than many observers allow.

India’s Trade Deal With the EU Is Bad News for Bangladesh Indian apparel exports will gain duty-free access to the EU, just as Bangladesh’s own preferential access begins to phase out.

Bangladesh’s garment sector accounts for more than 80 percent of its export earnings and employs 4.5 million people.

A new EU trade deal with India, combined with the phaseout of Bangladesh’s own preferential access, now threatens the entire sector.

Chile’s Boric Was Not the Failure He Is Made Out to Be Boric accomplished a string of policy successes long after he had been declared a lame duck for having lost the constitutional reform process.

Chile’s outgoing President Gabriel Boric accomplished a string of policy successes long after he had been declared a lame duck for having lost a constitutional reform process.

The Third Gulf War Is Bringing the AI Cloud Back Down to Earth With its redundant data centers and distributed networks, the cloud is an effort to make geography irrelevant. But that was always an illusion.

With its redundant data centers and distributed networks, the cloud is an effort to make geography irrelevant.

But as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has revealed, that was always an illusion.

Read more in Candace Rondeaux’s column:

War and Disorder Are Mobilizing the Middle East’s Middle Powers A loosely aligned “statist Quad”—Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey—is trying to actively coordinate on the region’s most volatile crises.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran spreads instability across the region, a loosely aligned grouping of middle powers is trying to actively coordinate on the Middle East’s most volatile crises, @dghanem.bsky.social and Ahmed Morsy write.

Does the Lawlessness of the Iran War Matter? An overarching question is whether the laws of war even matter when powerful states seem able to do as they please with little consequence.

An overarching question of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is whether the laws of war even matter when powerful states seem able to do as they please with little consequence.

@charlicarpenter.bsky.social tackles that question and more in her latest column:

India’s Trade Deal With the EU Is Bad News for Bangladesh Indian apparel exports will gain duty-free access to the EU, just as Bangladesh’s own preferential access begins to phase out.

For more than two decades, duty-free access to the EU helped make Bangladesh the world’s second-largest apparel exporter. That access is set to phase out in 2029. India’s new trade deal with the EU makes the timing even worse.

Chile’s Boric Was Not the Failure He Is Made Out to Be Boric accomplished a string of policy successes long after he had been declared a lame duck for having lost the constitutional reform process.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric is leaving office at the age of 40 with a consensus having already formed that his presidency was a failure.

WPR columnist James Bosworth (@bloggingsbyboz.bsky.social) argues that verdict is premature:

India’s Trade Deal With the EU Is Bad News for Bangladesh Indian apparel exports will gain duty-free access to the EU, just as Bangladesh’s own preferential access begins to phase out.

India’s new trade deal with the EU will give Indian apparel exports duty-free access to the European market just as Bangladesh’s own preferential access begins to phase out.

Arsalan Bukhari examines what that means for Bangladesh:

Chile’s Boric Was Not the Failure He Is Made Out to Be Boric accomplished a string of policy successes long after he had been declared a lame duck for having lost the constitutional reform process.

The conventional wisdom is that Chile’s outgoing President Gabriel Boric was a failure. But as WPR columnist James Bosworth (@bloggingsbyboz.bsky.social), that verdict ignores a string of successes he achieved long after being written off as a lame duck.

The Islamic State’s Worrying Resurgence in Niger For the country’s ruling military junta, a recent jihadist attack on a facility housing more than 1,000 tons of uranium is a major blow.

For Niger’s ruling military junta, a recent jihadist attack on a facility housing more than 1,000 tons of uranium is a major blow that exposes serious security failures.

The Islamic State’s Worrying Resurgence in Niger For the country’s ruling military junta, a recent jihadist attack on a facility housing more than 1,000 tons of uranium is a major blow.

The Islamic State’s assault on Niamey’s international airport last month was the first large-scale jihadist attack on Niger’s capital in more than a decade. It has shattered the city’s long-held reputation as a safer haven than its regional counterparts.

In Thailand, Anutin’s Upset Election Win Bodes Ill for the Conflict With Cambodia Having won an election by stoking nationalist sentiments, the Thai leader has a mandate to continue his tough approach to Cambodia.

A reformist party was widely expected to win Thailand’s elections last month. Instead, a conservative, pro-military party swept to a landslide, boosted in part by a border conflict with Cambodia that stoked nationalist sentiment across the country.

Anthropic’s Standoff With the Pentagon Is a Test of U.S. Credibility The terms under which American AI tools are deployed in warfare are being set by some men in a room, with no democratic input.

How AI tools are used in warfare should be decided by Congress, not by a company’s terms of service.

The Anthropic-Pentagon standoff has made that gap in democratic oversight impossible to ignore, Kat Duffy (@rightsduff.bsky.social) writes.

Air Power Alone Won’t Achieve Trump’s Objectives in Iran Trump may learn the hard way that in addition to being ineffective, bombing campaigns alone can actually be counterproductive.

Rather than simply being ineffective, relying on air power alone can actually be counterproductive, a lesson the Trump administration now seems destined to learn the hard way in Iran, columnist @profpaulpoast.bsky.social writes.

Putin Watches From the Sidelines as Another Russian Partner Falls Since he launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine, Putin has repeatedly shown that an alliance with Russia is little more than a paper shield.

In trying to expand Russia’s global influence, Putin has made his country weaker and less able to project power,an irony that current and prospective Russian allies are now absorbing.

Air Power Alone Won’t Achieve Trump’s Objectives in Iran Trump may learn the hard way that in addition to being ineffective, bombing campaigns alone can actually be counterproductive.

Can air power alone achieve Trump’s objectives in Iran?

The historical record, @profpaulpoast.bsky.social writes, gives a clear answer: no.

In Thailand, Anutin’s Upset Election Win Bodes Ill for the Conflict With Cambodia Having won an election by stoking nationalist sentiments, the Thai leader has a mandate to continue his tough approach to Cambodia.

Thailand holds most of the cards in its conflict with Cambodia: a massive military advantage, economic leverage, and a prime minister with a fresh nationalist mandate and little incentive to stand down.

Putin Watches From the Sidelines as Another Russian Partner Falls Since he launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine, Putin has repeatedly shown that an alliance with Russia is little more than a paper shield.

Assad toppled, Maduro captured, Khamenei killed. Each time, Russia watched from the sidelines.

Columnist @fridaghitis.bsky.social writes that Putin’s war in Ukraine has all but destroyed Moscow’s ability to act as a global power.

The Islamic State’s Worrying Resurgence in Niger For the country’s ruling military junta, a recent jihadist attack on a facility housing more than 1,000 tons of uranium is a major blow.

A recent Islamic State attack on the international airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger, is a major blow to the country’s ruling military junta.

It’s also a worrying sign of the group’s resurgence in the region, Tangi Bihan writes.

Anthropic’s Standoff With the Pentagon Is a Test of U.S. Credibility The terms under which American AI tools are deployed in warfare are being set by some men in a room, with no democratic input.

The terms under which American AI tools are deployed in warfare are being set by some men in a room, with no democratic input and no durability beyond the next change in political winds, Kat Duffy (@rightsduff.bsky.social) writes.