Photo source: Foreign Policy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Due to a wave of Houthi missile attacks in Red Sea, shipping companies are departing it in droves. In 2023, the Iran-backed Yemeni group has launched at least 100 missiles and drone attacks against a dozen ships in the Red Sea, according to US officials. They threatened to target all vessels heading toward Israel, whether they are Israeli-owned or operated.  To avoid suffering the same fate, major energy and shipping companies, including BP and Maersk, have halted their operations there. It has rattled the energy markets by driving up global oil prices and soon everything else. The Red Sea is what connects Asia to Europe, in terms of cargo ships, so disruptions are felt around the world. The Houthi attacks ‘have created worries for global freight markets, for the flows of energy commodities, other commodities, goods,’ said Richard Bronze, the head of geopolitics at Energy Aspects, a research firm, to Foreign...

  Photo source: Centre of Human Rights in Iran By Naveede Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Although the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 garnered headlines around the globe, the world would not have known her name had it not been for her killing at the hands of Iran’s morality police. Her death became the catalyst for the protest movement aptly named Woman, Life, Freedom, exposing the misogynist nature of the regime and its disregard for human life. The ensuing crackdown revealed the brutality of the state: thousands detained, hundreds killed, and countless others silenced. Even Amini’s family was not allowed to mourn her openly. Reports noted that her relatives faced intimidation and surveillance, and more recently, they were banned from travelling to Strasbourg to accept a prize on her behalf. This illustrates how the regime extends its repression beyond activists to grieving families, denying them dignity and freedom. The world has sought to express solidarity with the Iranian...

  Photo source: The Guardian By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront An estimated 225,000 migrants are presently stranded in Mexico, according to reporting by Associated Press, including people from Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, South Asia and sub‑Saharan Africa, most waiting for an opportunity to cross into the United States. In 2023, Mexico received a record number of requests for refuge, a 31 per cent increase over 2022, as noted by Reuters. Although only a small share of migrants formally request refuge, which allows them to transit through the country without being detained by immigration authorities, this remains one of the few official statistics that illustrates the magnitude of people on the move. Asylum seekers facing backlogs from overwhelmed immigration authorities have grown desperate. In September 2023, dozens of migrants tried to force their way into a government facility, resulting in injuries, reported by El País. For many years, mig...

  Photo source: Voice of America By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront New Zealand’s international relations are going in a new direction. For this, Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific. Peters sought to align New Zealand more closely with the United States under his ‘Pacific Reset’ policy that he launched while serving as foreign minister under Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-New Zealand First coalition government from 2017-2020. Peters is wasting no time in getting back to serve a sort of candid foreign affairs. Just three days after being sworn in as a minister, he gave his first speech on foreign policy at the US Business Summit in Auckland in December 2023. He was lavish in his praise for the United States in his address, arguing that Washington had been ‘instrumental in the Pacific’s success.’ But he noted: ‘there is more to do and not a moment to lose. We will ...

  Photo source: American Councils By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was not a serious debate about the role of the Kazakh language in society. The war somehow gave a wake-up effort to Kazakh consciousness. After the war began, many people switched from words to actions. After that, they attended language courses and understood that speaking Kazakh was a matter of national security. They suddenly realised that they needed to urgently speak Kazakh because they were bordered by a hostile, imperial country. The war in Ukraine has precipitated significant social movements across Eastern Europe and Eurasia, if not globally. It has united the European Union on an unprecedented scale and catalysed NATO expansion, with Finland recently joining the alliance and Sweden about to follow suit. It has inspired greater diversification of trade and energy networks and isolated Russia as a cultural pariah. As Russian forces fight a physical war in ...

  Photo source: Deccan Herald By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In 2019, Italy shocked the world by becoming the first G7 country to  join China’s Belt and Road Initiative. As the deal’s renewal comes ahead in March 2024, Italy is poised to withdraw from the initiative, due to unmet promises and country’s strategic re-analysis of China. The Belt and Road had enticed Italy because it was looking to expand its exports in the Chinese market. At that time, many Italian politicians felt abandoned by Europe, as its populist government was skeptical of the European Union. Xi, on the other hand, had his own reasons to seek favours from Italy. Historically, it served as a major terminus for ancient Silk Road, and Italy’s inclusion in the Belt and Road helped to signature his foreign policy, as he compared it to the golden age of Chinese prosperity and influence. There were other reasons as well. Italy is home to the largest Chinese population in Europe, and shares deep linkages in...

  Photo source: The Economic Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In the first decade of the twenty-first century, ASEAN began to remedy a persistent institutional weakness: its failure to integrate defence leadership into regional diplomacy. The creation of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting in 2006 marked a decisive shift, bringing defence ministers into a structured forum for dialogue. By 2010, this platform had expanded into the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus , incorporating eight key partners—Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States. The decision in 2017 to institutionalise this gathering as an annual forum significantly deepened habits of cooperation, offering a rare venue where strategic mistrust could be managed through routine engagement. Alongside ASEAN-led mechanisms, parallel forums have flourished, reflecting both the region’s growing importance and the competitive impulses of major powers. Foremost amon...

  Photo source: Foreign Affairs By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront When Javier Milei became Argentina’s president in December 2023, he would not be the first of the country’s leaders to come to power by boldly promising an end to stagnation. For decades, new leaders, left and right, have entered office with radical reform programs meant to mark a sharp break with the past. None of them has had more than temporary success in breaking the country out of myriad illnesses that have characterised most of its modern history. Argentines elected Milei, a libertarian outsider who entered politics only two years ago. It is because they were fed up after years of economic instability. But his electoral campaign was dominated not just by the catastrophic state of the economy but also by Milei’s eccentricities. An admirer of former presidents Donald Trump of the United States and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, he promised to bring down public spending, shut down Argentina’s central bank, and ado...

  Photo source: Foreign Policy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront At the G20 Bali Summit 2022 in November 2022, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met face to face for the first time since Biden took office. The tone was careful but clear. Both leaders accepted that rivalry between their countries would continue, yet stressed that it must be managed responsibly. As Ananth Krishnan reported in The Hindu, they agreed to avoid military confrontation and to revive cooperation on issues such as climate change and global economic stability. The meeting reflected a shared understanding: a war between the United States and China would have devastating global consequences. What has taken shape instead is a quieter, more complex form of competition—often described as ‘institutional balancing’. Rather than relying on military build-ups or rigid alliances, this approach uses international institutions, rules, and norms to gain strategic advantage. States compete by shaping agendas, setting standar...

  Photo source: Council on Foreign Relations By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront After a year of successive interim governments, the Bulgarian parliament finally voted in favour of a regular government in June 2023. This move has the potential to move Bulgaria back towards the European mainstream and bring wider benefits to the region. The two main political actors in the country, the We Continue the Change (PP) party with its coalition partner Democratic Bulgaria (DB) and GERB, have been unable to create governments on their own as each has just over a quarter of the MPs in parliament. Their opposing positions on the reform of the judiciary and the rule of law have prevented them from forming a coalition government. The disarray in parliament had left President Rumen Radev, a former general with a growing appetite for power, in charge of appointing interim governments. But Radev’s negative rhetoric towards political parties and reluctance to hand over the governing mandate made...

  Photo source: Reuters By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront When Yoon Suk-yeol assumed office in 2022, prospects for a stable relationship with China appeared fragile. His campaign rhetoric had been openly critical of Beijing, reinforcing the long-standing tendency of conservative governments in Seoul to privilege the United States alliance while viewing China through a strategic lens shaped by its support for North Korea. Early signals from Yoon’s presidency seemed to confirm this trajectory. His decision to attend a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation —the first by a South Korean leader—was widely interpreted as a geopolitical statement. As Reuters reported at the time, his government sought to ‘strengthen cooperation with NATO’ in response to rising threats and intensifying global competition, linking developments in Europe with those in East Asia. This outward alignment with Western security structures was accompanied by sharper rhetoric on China. In April 2...

  Photo source: Al Majalla By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront The NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023 marked a decisive moment in the evolution of European security. Its ninety-point communique, described by several commentators as ‘historic’, sought to project unity and resolve in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Yet beneath its declaratory strength lay a more sobering reality: the conflict was far from resolution, and the alliance remained cautious about the risks of escalation. The summit concluded with leaders from thirty-one member states affirming that Ukraine would one day join NATO. However, no timetable was offered, nor were concrete accession conditions clarified. As BBC News observed in its coverage, the promise amounted to ‘political reassurance without immediate substance’, reflecting both solidarity with Kyiv and anxiety about provoking Moscow. This ambiguity is not accidental. Ukraine occupies an extraordinarily precarious position. While NATO continues to ...