Research, analysis, and strategic foresight.
Featured reports, country studies, and briefings from our analysts and senior fellows.
BRICS+ Expansion in 2025: Strategic Implications of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt Joining the Bloc
The formal accession of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia to BRICS in January 2024, followed by the bloc's 2025 Kazan-defined enlargement agenda, has reorganized the geometry of global economic diplomacy in ways that are only now becoming legible.
Mexico Overtakes China as Largest U.S. Trade Partner: Nearshoring Capital Flows Accelerate
Mexico's emergence as the United States' largest goods trading partner — confirmed by Census Bureau data for 2023 and consolidated through 2025 — marks the most significant restructuring of North American supply chains since the original NAFTA framework took effect in 1994.
Germany's 2025 Snap Election and the Return of CDU/CSU Under Friedrich Merz
The February 23, 2025 federal election ended the Scholz coalition, returned the CDU/CSU to government under Friedrich Merz, and produced a Bundestag in which a self-described radical-right party reached above 20 percent for the first time in postwar German history.
After the Gaza Ceasefire: Reconstruction Politics and the Abraham Accords Revival
The January 2025 phased ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, opened a politically narrow but operationally significant window for Gaza reconstruction and a renegotiated regional security architecture.
ECOWAS After the Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso Withdrawal: The Sahel Confederation's First Year
The January 2024 announcement of withdrawal from ECOWAS by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and the subsequent formalization of the Alliance of Sahel States as a confederation, has restructured West African security and trade architecture and accelerated French strategic disengagement.
Japan Under Sanae Takaichi: Defense Spending, Energy Security, and the Taiwan Strait
Sanae Takaichi's October 2025 elevation to the premiership made her Japan's first female prime minister and marked a meaningful shift in the LDP's center of gravity on security, energy and economic policy.
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