U.S.Vice President Mike Pence will be attending the US-ASEAN Summit in Singapore and the APEC Summit in Papua New Guinea in mid-November, where he is expected to highlight the Trump administration's vision of a "free and open Indo-Pacific." The strategy was designed to replace the Obama-era "Pivot to Asia," but as White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, many are still unclear about what this strategy means.

The talks with North Korean officials Thursday were for planning the next summit, but the meeting was postponed over scheduling conflicts. President Trump now says he's in no rush...

Tens of thousands of South Sudanese cheered, paraded and danced around the grounds of the John Garang Memorial Park in the capital city of Juba last week, celebrating a fresh peace deal. It was a striking change of mood for a country that has seen little joy in the past five years, ripped apart by a civil war that has displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands dead. Rebel leader, Riek Machar, who once served as the country's vice president, had flown back from exile and took the stage last Thursday along with South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir. The arch...

A few Nigerian newspapers reported erroneously this week that the U.S. Institute of Peace has made a prediction about the possible outcome of Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election. USIP never makes predictions about election outcomes and has not done so in this case. The Institute’s work on elections is confined to helping nations avoid electoral violence.

Electoral Violence

Asian leaders will be meeting at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit in Singapore Nov. 15. Despite evidence of rising authoritarianism, human rights violations and regression of democracy in the region, these issues won't be high on the agenda. What is causing this trend, and why is the Trump administration largely silent on it? White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.

Washington being Washington, the expectation is that books born in this city should focus on matters of high policy. On that front, Prudence Bushnell’s account of the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya—and that of its counterpart in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania—on Aug. 7, 1998, does not disappoint. Indeed, her book, Terrorism, Betrayal, and Resilience: My Story of the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings, raises important questions about how the Washington policy establishment missed the clues that might have allowed it to foresee, and possibly prevent...

In its fifth year, Russia's armed aggression in Ukraine's Donbas region has become a costly burden with little strategic benefit. Ukraine, having lost over 10,000 lives, is more united against Russia — and more connected to Europe. Sanctions have heightened Russia’s isolation and forced it to cut spending, leading to protests over the government’s raising of the retirement age. Meanwhile, Russia’s continued military presence in Donbas blocks all Russian hopes of restoring dialogue with the West on shaping security in Europe. While we cannot know when or...