The term "rules-based international order" has long been the favorite incantation of the politicians of the West. Call it, and you express "virtue," "multilateralism" and "civilizational responsibility. But in January 2026, the very headquarters of Liberal globalism, the Cathedral of Liberal globalism in Davos, in front of the best and the brightest of the world, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that the current rules-based order had already been killed. No

The United States has spent years improving Taiwan's defense as tensions with China have risen in the Indo-Pacific. Recent developments, however, suggest that Washington's global military duties are putting serious pressure on its ability to maintain that commitment. The Trump administration has suspended a proposed $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan as the United States moves to preserve critical weapons stockpiles depleted during its ongoing military campaign against Iran know

Meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Heads of State and Government, 25 June 2025. (Photo: NATO). With the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara approaching, the European Union’s foreign policy dilemma is becoming increasingly prominent. Three factors are driving this uncertainty: the ongoing war in Ukraine, increasing instability in the Middle East, and doubts about the US's long-term security commitments to NATO. What was initially thought to be a short conflict

Anytime in 2027, ASEAN will enter a new phase of leadership with the appointment of its next Secretary-General. Based on the rotational arrangement among member states, Indonesia is expected to nominate the next representative to lead the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

While many observers and critics describe the current confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran as a quagmire, stalemate, or even a “new Vietnam” for the United States, the crisis may be better understood through a different historical analogy: the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Suez Crisis demonstrated a fundamental shift in global power relations, revealing that the United Kingdom and France could no longer pursue independent military and foreign policies without the

Singapore and Japan’s decision on March 18 to elevate the bilateral ties to a strategic partnership in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations is emphasized more than just a diplomatic symbolism. This act signals a critical shift in the Indo-Pacific on how middle countries like the two nations as middle powers increasingly shape regional order through institutions, economic governance, and strategic coordination amid great power rivalry intensification.

The Middle East is once again moving through a dangerous moment. The rising US-Israel tension with Iran has once again recalled the prolonged conflict memory. As noted, recent efforts in Islamabad to lower tensions have offered only limited relief. The fire, yet, still has not turned into ash, and perhaps, will not be gone. Distrust remains deep, strategic rivalries remain alive, and the wider region is still vulnerable to a new cycle of escalation. In such a setting, attenti

Iranians have endured months of war, repression and economic collapse, and the question that matters most is what comes next. History offers a clear warning: democracies are not delivered by bombs or missiles, nor manufactured in exile. They are built from within, through organisation, sacrifice and legitimacy among the people themselves. That is precisely why exiled prince Reza Pahlavi’s meetings with European leaders this month are actively harmful.

President Prabowo Subianto recently conducted a state visit to Japan, marked by high-level engagements with Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, resulting in several strategic commitments. Amid ongoing global uncertainties, Japan continues to stand as one of Indonesia’s most important strategic partners in addressing shared economic and geopolitical challenges.

For decades, Iranian opposition movements and their Western backers have relied on a familiar toolkit to induce political change: economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, information campaigns, assassinations, and at times military confrontation. From a critical perspective, these instruments are not simply failed democratization tools; rather, they can also be understood as instruments of coercive geopolitical power that often impose significant costs on civilian population

18 April 2026, marks the seventy first anniversary of the Bandung Conference. While the geopolitical landscape currently reflects the structural volatility of 1955 with haunting accuracy, the silence in Jakarta on this anniversary is a definitive strategic indicator. This absence of commemoration is not a mere administrative oversight but a signal of a profound shift in Indonesian diplomatic priority.

Two weeks ago, the man whose campaign mantra was, “No new wars” started bombing Iran. On the same day, Trump was asked about his intentions for Cuba. He replied, “I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba.” The honor of “taking Cuba”? Forget Trump’s awkward, self-referential terms for thinking about a possible war—take note of the hypocrisy, because no one else did.

The US- Israel strikes on Iran impacting tightly controlled access to the Hormuz Strait, a critical energy chokepoint, has halted 20% of global oil shipments pushing up global energy prices unprecedentedly.

In the Middle East, wars do not merely alter the balance of power; they also test the credibility of security arrangements. The Iran war belongs to that category. Even now, it cannot be said with certainty that the war has fully ended. Credible reports point to continuing hostilities, mounting pressure on the Strait of Hormuz, and reciprocal attacks involving Iran, the United States, and Israel. Discussion of the “post-Iran war,” therefore, should not be understood as a descr

Cross-strait relations have deteriorated since the election of Tsai Ing-wen in 2016 and have further hardened under Lai Ching-te since 2024. Beijing has curtailed formal communication channels with Taipei while increasing military pressure through naval and air operations around Taiwan. At the same time, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has secured three consecutive electoral victories, consolidating a trajectory that Beijing rejects as separatist. The result is a compe

The United States has provided international aid to over 150 countries for 63 years. With the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), that number is no longer certain. USAID was the largest program falling under the International Affairs Budget and supported many global health and development programs. In July 2025, the Trump Administration announced it was shutting down the branch and by February 2026, this foreign aid agency was officially defu

Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy toward Iran has rarely appeared as ambiguous as it does today in the recent tensions between Iran. Israel, and the USA. In 2023, Saudi Arabia has taken a bold step to restore diplomatic ties with Tehran through an agreement brokered by China, a step widely seen as a pivot toward de-escalation. Yet as recent tensions involving the United States and Israel intensify, Riyadh has sent mixed signals by publicly urging restraint while quietly aligning

Donald Trump says the United States can get what it wants in Iran without sending in ground troops. Marco Rubio said on March 27 that Washington can achieve its objectives without a ground invasion and that the war could end in “weeks, not months”. He also described those objectives in broad terms: dismantling Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and degrading its navy and air force. Those are not limited aims as they are trying to break Iran’s main tools of deterrence and c

Ever since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping earlier this month, the global energy and financial markets have been shaken to their core. In a matter of weeks, the Iranian Government's aggression against Commercial Oil Shipping has caused a spike in the costs of Brent Crude to over $90, with further attacks against the Arab Gulf States threatening to only worsen these conditions.

The international system was built after the catastrophe of the Second World War with a singular ambition. Humanity hoped never again to witness global disorder fueled by unchecked power politics. The institution that embodied this hope was the United Nations, an organization designed to serve as the supreme diplomatic forum where disputes among nations could be resolved before they descended into destructive wars. Yet the escalating confrontation involving Iran, the United S