Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
China’s largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan have not only raised regional tensions — they have also provided analysts with potential insight into how Chinese forces might operate around the self-ruled island in case of a conflict. At the same time, the multiday maneuvers, launched in retaliation for...
With Russia and China looming in the background, America’s top diplomat pitched a “new chapter” in U.S.-African relations on Monday, promising robust trade and calling for democracy despite political upheaval in much of the continent. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken insisted his five-day swing through...
As the Taliban has sought to present a kinder, gentler image to a skeptical outside world, its deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has often served as the movement’s public face. Given that his family name is synonymous with jihadi terrorism and he carries a $10 million price on his head from the U.S. government...
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will launch a three-country tour of Africa on Sunday in South Africa. He is expected to deliver a major speech laying out the Biden administration's strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. Experts tell VOA that human rights concerns will likely be high on the agenda. VOA's Senior...
Spreading false and alarming news and fomenting dissent against the army are the outlandish charges under which a Japanese journalist has been held in Myanmar. He was detained while covering an anti-junta protest in Yangon last weekend. He is one of over 140 journalists, including at least five foreign...
The Taliban government claimed in a statement it had “no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul,” after the U.S. airstrike that killed the head of al Qaeda while he was on the balcony of a safehouse in central Kabul early Sunday morning. The multi-factioned group, already struggling to...
The first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine’s key Black Sea ports since the Russian invasion is expected to dock this week in Tripoli, Lebanon, the country where food inflation is the highest in the world, completing a test run for an international deal aimed at alleviating the global food crisis. The ship, carrying...
Announcing the death of Ayman al-Zawahri – killed by a CIA drone strike on the balcony of a villa in downtown Kabul early Sunday – President Joe Biden said it demonstrated a U.S. capability to fight terrorism in Afghanistan today, even without thousands of soldiers on the ground. Yet a year after the jihadist Taliban...
For President Biden, the killing of al-Qaeda’s top leader in a drone strike last weekend marked a welcome triumph as officials steel themselves for the first anniversary of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the attack, which revealed to the public the presence of veteran militant Ayman al-Zawahiri in the...
Top aides to President Joe Biden are slamming the Taliban for letting al Qaeda’s leader live in Afghanistan’s capital and are promising to hold the militant group accountable — intensifying tensions between Washington and Kabul. Speaking days after a U.S. drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahri, senior U.S. officials warned...