Content Type: Journal Article - CIAO Search Results

1. The Impact of Occupational Status on Public Attitudes Toward Syrians Under Temporary Protection in Turkey

Author:: Michelle S. Dromgold-Sermen
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal on Migration and Human Security
Institution:: Center for Migration Studies of New York
Abstract:: For many non-immigrants in the United States, adjusting one’s legal status to lawful permanent residence through employment-sponsorship is a unique and attractive pathway to permanent residence and prospective citizenship in the United States. However, amidst an uncertain future for non-immigrant temporary work visas, tech layoffs, and stalled legislative immigration reform, many non-immigrant visa-holders are leaving the United States and taking their talent with them. This paper specifically examines visa and immigration processing delays for employment-sponsored adjustments of status to lawful permanent residence in the United States between 2007 and 2019. Based on descriptive analysis and discrete time event history models of data posted to an online immigration forum I call “Immigration Journey,” I document how immigrant visa-holders’ waiting in the U.S. immigration bureaucracy for employment-based immigrant visa processing reflects and reproduces racial, educational, and socioeconomic hierarchies and inequities. I find that immigrants from countries of origin with smaller populations, higher skill levels, and those able to pay for premium processing have higher likelihoods of a quick adjustment of status decision. Conversely, immigrants from countries of origin with larger populations or those with lower skill levels are left waiting longer for their adjustment of status decisions — even when they pay for premium processing of their petition for an immigrant visa. Based on this finding, I introduce the concept of a hierarchy of waiting to illustrate the ways in which legislation and inequitable administrative policies in U.S. immigrant visa processing become mechanisms of waiting. By doing so, this paper makes a theoretical contribution for understanding stratification within the employment-based immigrant visa pathway and highlights how this hierarchy of waiting exacerbates inequalities in immigration more broadly. The empirical findings and conceptualization of a hierarchy of waiting inform policy recommendations for: 1. legislative reform of country caps for lawful permanent residence; 2. legislative reform of preference category caps for lawful permanent residence; 3. increased funding for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processing; and 4. increased transparency and communication of USCIS processes. Such policy changes would make immigrant visa availability and USCIS processing more equitable for future lawful permanent residents and citizens who are eligible to adjust their status through employment-based and other immigrant visa preference categories. Streamlined changes to the U.S. immigration legislation and administrative processes are critical for the United States’ future innovation and growth.
Topic:: Employment, Bureaucracy, Immigration Policy, and Lawful Permanent Residence
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

2. Asymmetric Trade Dependence: How India Gains from Pakistan Through Re-Export Channels

Author:: Saifullah
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Political Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: The asymmetric trade interdependence between India and Pakistan is examined using the Theory of Complex Interdependence. Despite the political hostility and official trade prohibition, India has continued to beeconomically blessed by Pakistan via third-party re-exporter methods, which are the UAE, Qatar, and Singapore. Despite top-down bilateral trade falling to US$1.2 billion by 2024, compared to US$3 billion in 2018, trade experts believe the value of Indian-origin goods entering Pakistan through a backdoor channel is over US$10 billion annually. Since 2015, the trade balance has consistently been in India's favor, with Pakistan relying heavily on imports from India and having minimal potential for exports. Although this trade agreement brings some benefits to Pakistani consumers, i.e., the chance to have more inexpensive or a variety of goods, it also reveals a significant vulnerability in the Pakistani government's trade policy, which is sluggish and unnecessarily restrictive. The policy implications of the findings concern trade reform, regional interaction, and fostering economic sovereignty in Pakistan.
Topic:: Political Economy, Bilateral Relations, Exports, Trade, Trade Deficit, and Interdependence
Political Geography:: Pakistan, South Asia, India, and United Arab Emirates

3. Navigating the Dynamics of Policy Politics: An Analysis of Contemporary Public Policy Formulation Trends in Bangladesh

Author:: Md. Akmal Hossain
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Political Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: Public policy formulation is an integral part of the government's role in providing essential services to citizens. Nevertheless, available studies on the policy process in Bangladesh have not thoroughly explored the detailed procedures and tendencies of the policy formulation process. The principal objective of this paper was to investigate the recent trends in the public policy-making process in Bangladesh. Based on secondary data sources, this paper argues that no analogous model can effectively analyze all policies implemented in Bangladesh over the last decade. However, the group interest and political process model is more feasible than other models in the policy formulation process. The implications of this study are to understand the nature of the policies and the role of actors who decide which policies will be developed and whose interests will be served. Moreover, this article will help policymakers and policy theorists make informed decisions, avoiding the weaknesses and drawbacks of previous policies.
Topic:: Government, Public Policy, Domestic Policy, and Decision-Making
Political Geography:: Bangladesh and South Asia

4. Electoral Clientelism and Election violence in South and South-East Asia

Author:: Fariha Tabassum
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Political Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: This study aims at examining the effect of electoral clientelism on election violence under a variety of conditions. Taking motivation from earlier research denoting increased risk of violence in elections in high clientelist context, this paper examines the effect of electoral clientelism in terms of vote buying on election violence. This study extends existing literature by arguing that the effect of electoral clientelism on election violence is dependent upon certain conditions and can vary across these conditions. The region of focus for this study is South and Southeast Asia since this is an understudied region with a high level of election violence as well as electoral clientelism. The results show significant evidence for the argument that the effect of electoral clientelism on election violence is dependent upon the conditions of competitiveness, media freedom and the general level of political violence prevailing in a country.
Topic:: Political Violence, Elections, Violence, and Clientelism
Political Geography:: South Asia and Southeast Asia

5. Decentring Western IR Theories: Unveiling Efforts from the Arab World

Author:: Lourdes Habash
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: Since Stanley Hoffmann's assertion that the field of international relations (IR) is predominantly Western, several non-Western trends have emerged to challenge this dominance. This study aims to examine Arab efforts that challenge Eurocentrism, their success in doing so within the field of IR, and to draw connections with other transformative efforts, mainly Global IR and Post-Western IR. The analysis is carried out within the broader context of the "Homegrown" trend in IR that seeks to diversify and decolonize the field. The argument within this article states that while the Arab efforts, represented by the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies, the School of International Relations of the Middle East (IRME), and the Islamic IR, are important steps. However, they have had limited impact and, in some cases, replicated the problems they seek to address. It also advocates for a more self-critical and contextual approach to decentralizing Western International Relations Theories (IRT), drawing lessons from the experiences and shortcomings of other non-Western initiatives. Moreover, a vision for enhancing the Arabic efforts to overcome Western hegemony, on the level of knowledge production as well as on the pedagogical and institutional levels, will be presented. An Arab exclusivity is not advocated in this article; instead, it emphasizes the need for a thorough examination of Arab initiatives, as part of the Global South, to improve their impact in achieving their goals.
Topic:: International Relations, Hegemony, Decolonization, and Eurocentrism
Political Geography:: Middle East and Global South

6. Türkiye as a Cusp State: Conceptualization and Implementation

Author:: Meliha Benli Altunışık
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: This article revisits the concept of the “Cusp State” with a specific focus on Türkiye, aiming to deepen both its theoretical and empirical relevance. It begins by re-examining the definitional foundations of the concept, which refers to states situated at the intersection of regional and global dynamics, exhibiting hybrid characteristics and adaptive foreign policy behaviors. The article argues that the Cusp State framework offers a valuable lens for analyzing Türkiye’s foreign policy, particularly due to its blend of ideational and material factors and its geostrategic positioning. The analysis explores how Türkiye navigates its cuspness by employing region-building strategies, enhancing connectivity, and repositioning itself within global hierarchies. The article also investigates the limitations and contradictions inherent in these strategies, including domestic-international linkages, geopolitical constraints, and normative tensions. In doing so, it demonstrates that Türkiye's trajectory exemplifies the dynamic nature of cuspness—not merely as a structural condition but as a set of evolving practices shaped by agency and context. Ultimately, the article contributes to the literature by refining the Cusp State concept and offering empirical insights into Türkiye’s foreign policy conduct in a rapidly shifting international environment.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Regionalism, and Connectivity
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

7. From Bridge to Hinge: Rapprochement-Estrangement Pendulum of Turkish Foreign Policy

Author:: Mesut Özcan
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: The main motivation of this paper is to uncover the logic underlying the seemingly inconsistent and erratic foreign policy behavior of countries like Turkey, which are surrounded by different subsystems. The strategic cultures of the surrounding subsystems impose different modes of behavior on borderlands and create attract-repel elements for them. The responses to such elements appear as policies of rapprochement and estrangement, representing closer or cooling relations. Therefore, as part of the attract-repel dynamic, foreign policy behavior appears to oscillate between conflicting extremes. Consequently, the borderland position presents a combination of challenges and opportunities, depending on the comprehensive national power. It can be either reduced to a buffer zone caught between different and imposing entities, or transformed into a hinge state that can change regional or global balances. The underlying logic and ultimate goal of such policy swings, which may appear contradictory and erratic at times, is to become a hinge state in this process by capitalizing on advantages and opportunities, avoiding drawbacks and gaining more power at each step. In this process, Turkey appears as a borderland country that keeps moving between pivotal and linchpin positions, trying to confirm her linchpin status while aspiring to become a hinge state.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Borders, Rapprochement, and Strategic Autonomy
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

8. Perception and Continuity: Active Non-Alignment in Turkish Foreign Policy

Author:: Burak Çakirca
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: This study analyses Turkish foreign policy between 2010 and 2025, asking whether this period marks a strategic rupture or reflects continuity with the long-standing Westernisation trajectory. Employing the emerging framework of Active Non-Alignment (ANA), the study examines how Turkey’s redefinition of strategic interests and alignments reflects shifting global and regional dynamics. The findings suggest that while institutional and ontological ties to the West persist, Turkish foreign policy demonstrates a perceptual shift characterised by strategic autonomy, diversified partnerships, and issue-based pragmatism. By applying ANA to this evolving policy orientation, the study offers both a reinterpretation of Turkish foreign policy continuity and a theoretical contribution to the emerging literature on alternative alignment strategies in global politics.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Partnerships, Diversification, Strategic Autonomy, Pragmatism, Continuity, and Westernization
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

9. Conceptualizing Compartmentalization in International Relations: The Case of Turkish Foreign Policy

Author:: Şaban Kardaş and Bayram Sinkaya
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: How do we conceptualize compartmentalization as a foreign policy behavior? This paper will argue that compartmentalization is a practical and cognitive approach to foreign policy decision-making and behavior at times of contradictory pressures arising from domestic or external realities, when actors need to make stark choices between different alternatives. Having delineated the boundaries of this concept, the article will engage in an extensive review of the literature employing the concept of compartmentalization in the study of Turkish foreign policy. It will trace how Turkish foreign policy conduct increasingly adopted this behavior in at least two distinct forms: issue-based and actor-based. The paper will argue that the widening scope of this practical-cognitive behavior is a result of a number of systemic and domestic-state level factors, which are closely related to the evolution of Türkiye’s domestic realities and international positioning against the background of a changing international system. Moreover, the paper will argue that at the individual-ideational level as well, compartmentalization has been part of a set of cognitive priors which affect the Turkish foreign policy makers’ formulation of alternative foreign policy strategies.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, International Cooperation, and Compartmentalization
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

10. The Evolution and Ramifications of the Iran-Saudi Rivalry Through Multiple Lenses: A Review of Mabon, Fraihat and Mohammad

Author:: Ahmet Furkan Özyakar
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: This review endeavors to identify key themes and critical perspectives discernible in the scholarship of Simon Mabon’s The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran, Ibrahim Fraihat’s Iran and Saudi Arabia: Taming a Chaotic Conflict, and Talal Mohammad’s Iranian-Saudi Rivalry since 1979: In the Words of Kings and Clerics, who have meticulously investigated Iranian-Saudi relations in the Middle Eastern context. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, bilateral relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have assumed paramount importance in elucidating the multifaceted political, religious, cultural, economic, and societal dynamics of the Middle East. The postrevolutionary trajectory brought a volte-face to relations, instigating a protracted period of rivalry and conflict spanning four decades, thereby catalyzing the escalation of conflicts across the Middle East. Both countries perceive each other as existential security threats, while concurrently aspiring for regional hegemony. Amidst this backdrop, seminal events such as Saudi Arabia’s support of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the recalibration of the political landscape after the United States (US)-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the reverberations of the Arab Spring, the execution of Nimr al-Nimr1 in 2016, and the Yemen Civil War have markedly intensified the discord in bilateral relations between Riyadh and Tehran. Although there have been short periods of restrained rapprochement and diplomatic overtures, the prevailing atmosphere of acrimony and relentless pursuit of dominance, both regionally and within the greater Islamic sphere, determine the framework of their relations. Consequently, pejorative labels such as “suspicion”, “infidel”, “enemy”, and “confrontation” often feature in describing the complicated dynamics characterizing Saudi-Iranian relations.
Topic:: Bilateral Relations, Hegemony, Book Review, Rivalry, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:: Iran, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia

11. The Image of Imperial Russia as an Enemy in the Iranians’ Collective Memory

Author:: Saeed Khavarinejad
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: This research tried to uncover the historical factors that have instilled a deep-rooted distrust of Russia in the Iranians’ collective memory. The researcher employed a case study strategy to examine historical empirical data and analyzed the consequences of the conflicts between Persia/Iran and Imperial Russia through collective trauma theory. The research discovered that 1) the 9th–12th clashes and the Russo-Persian Wars in the 17th–19th centuries and their subsequent treaties of Gulistan, Turkmenchay, and later, Akhal, and 2) Imperial Russia’s interventions in Iran during Constitutional Revolution, including the shelling of the Iranian Parliament in 1911, threatening Iranian government by issuing two ultimatums in 1911, the occupation and atrocity against Iranians in Tabriz in 1909–1918, the shelling of the Holy Shrine in Mashhad in 1912, and occupying Iran during Persian Campaign in the First World War in 1914–1918, which later followed with Soviet occupation from 1941 to 1946 in World War II, were among the primary factors which led to distrust of Russia in Iranian collective memory to the present. The evidence for anti-Russian sentiments in Iranian collective memory was identified as contempt in historiographical and literary works, hatred in religious circles, and Russophobia and conspiracy theories among Iranian politicians. The author concluded that the image of Imperial Russia as an enemy in the collective memory of Iranians has been shaped by the transgenerational and lasting effects of the memory of historical events, making the feeling of victimization toward Russia an integral part of Iranian contemporary identity.
Topic:: Imperialism, War, History, Literature, Intervention, Collective Memory, and Distrust
Political Geography:: Russia, Iran, and Middle East

12. Letter from Joseon to Korea: International Politics of the Korean Peninsula

Author:: Muhammad Eren Yıldırım
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: South Korea has indispensable military relations with the United States (US), especially in the context of its hostile relations with North Korea. In addition, China’s giant economic power makes South Korea reluctant to abandon its relations with China. Yet another significant factor complicating the regional dynamics for South Korea is the unresolved historical issues inherited from the imperial exploitation by the Japanese Empire on the Korean peninsula. This book aims to replace the narrative of South Korea’s as an “agent” in the global arena, considering its historical values and above-mentioned transforming conditions, with a multifaceted approach called “strategic pragmatism.” The author asks the following questions: what resources does South Korea have in its foreign policy-making processes?, what is its strategy based on these resources?, and what are the sources of the fundamental beliefs that construct the policymakers’ perception of South Korea’s foreign policy strategy?
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Book Review, Regional Politics, and Strategic Pragmatism
Political Geography:: China, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and United States of America

13. Power of Bonding and Non-Western Emerging Great Powers Engagement: Comparing China and India’s Soft Power Strategy in Pakistan

Author:: Abdur Rahman Fuad
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: Power of Bonding and Non-Western Emerging Great Powers Engagement: Comparing China and India’s Soft Power Strategy in Pakistan by Md. Nazmul Islam is a scholarly exploration that pioneers new perspectives in International Relations. It offers a unique and fresh insight into how non-Western emerging great powers, specifically China and India, utilize soft power strategies to engage with Pakistan. The significance of this four-chapter book lies in its departure from traditional Western-centric viewpoints, providing a distinct lens to comprehend the geopolitical and cultural strategies of these major Asian powers. This unique perspective on non-Western soft power will intrigue scholars, policymakers, and individuals interested in international relations.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Book Review, Soft Power, and Emerging Powers
Political Geography:: Pakistan, China, India, and Asia

14. Myths of Modern History: From the French Revolution to the 20th Century World Wars and the Cold War

Author:: Klevis Kolasi
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: Jacques R. Pauwels’ Myths of Modern History offers a bold and accessible critique of the dominant narratives shaping our understanding of modern history, from the French Revolution to the present. As the culmination of the author’s acclaimed trilogy (The Great Class War 1914–1918, The Myth of the Good War, and Big Business and Hitler), this work provides a concise counter-history of twelve key events, analyzed in twelve chapters, that have helped define the modern world. Pauwels deconstructs myths perpetuated by the media, elites, and conventional historiography —myths that promote a sanitized and benevolent view of capitalism’s role. In doing so, he challenges readers to reconsider historical processes and their systemic causes.
Topic:: Cold War, War, History, Capitalism, Book Review, and French Revolution
Political Geography:: Global Focus

15. The Asian 21st Century

Author:: Azhar Waqar
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: “The Asian 21st Century” is a compilation of essays and articles by Kishore Mahbubani that covers various topics related to the transition of power especially in the context of the geopolitical and economic rise of Asia. In this book, instead of giving an overarching definition of Asia, the author focuses on certain countries, particularly China, Japan, South Korea, India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. The book has been divided into four sections; the first section is titled “The End of Era of Western Domination”, the second “The Asian Renaissance”, the third is comprised of articles related to “The Peaceful Rise of China”, and the last one is titled “The Globalization, Multilateralism and Cooperation.”
Topic:: Economics, Geopolitics, Book Review, and ASEAN
Political Geography:: Japan, China, India, Asia, and South Korea

16. Representatives in Robes? How California Respondents think of Judicial Representation

Author:: Nancy Bays Arrington and Matthew Moore
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: California Journal of Politics and Policy
Institution:: Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley
Abstract:: Many have identified the tension between conceptualizing judges as legal versus political actors. One dimension of this tension is the extent to which we should or do think of judges as political representatives, both broadly and in ways that are either similar to or distinct from elected political representatives. In this project, we address the role of judges as representatives and then assess whether and to what extent California residents think of judges as representatives. Using public opinion data of California residents from the CalSpeaks survey fielded in the spring of 2021, we find that about a third of respondents do consider judges representatives in some way. While we find no gender differences in perceptions of judicial representation and very limited racial differences, there are strong age differences: younger respondents were significantly more likely to indicate that judges are representatives in some way compared to older respondents. This project informs how Californians understand the role of the courts, which might have consequences for judicial legitimacy and effectiveness.
Topic:: Politics, Public Opinion, Representation, Legitimacy, and Judiciary
Political Geography:: California, North America, and United States of America

17. COVID-19 Relief Measures had Few Durable Post-Pandemic Effects on Renters

Author:: Benjamin Mark Reicher and Michael Kuehlwein
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: California Journal of Politics and Policy
Institution:: Berkeley APEC Study Center
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for an unprecedented crisis in the rental housing market, as families faced eviction as a consequence of pandemic lockdowns and resulting economic recession. In response, for the first time ever in US history, eviction moratoria were introduced to protect renters from being evicted for nonpayment; these were accompanied by several stimulus measures to support renters and the overall economy. This study asks whether these pandemic-era policies had any lingering effects after they had ceased to be implemented, by examining whether renters’ housing vulnerability at the state level saw any improvement in the post-pandemic years of 2022-23. For comparison, the study also evaluates the effects of variables reflecting economic fundamentals and renters’ housing burden. The findings suggest that the included policies had little effect on renters’ post-pandemic housing precarity.
Topic:: Economics, Public Policy, Eviction, COVID-19, Housing, Rent, and Housing Market
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

18. Lilliputians at the Gate: Small Individual Campaign Donations and Political Polarization in Western State Legislatures

Author:: Todd Lochner, Ellen Seljan, Madeleine MacWilliamson, and Valerie Naborska
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: California Journal of Politics and Policy
Institution:: Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley
Abstract:: Scholars seek to understand campaign donor behavior and its effects on candidates. Researchers generally agree that individual donors are more ideologically extreme than most organizational donors but disagree as to whether small individual donors (those giving less than $200 per cycle) are especially correlated to extremist candidates. We study the relationship between small individual donors and legislators’ NPAT and CFscores for the California, Washington, and Oregon legislatures between 2016 and 2022. We find both that individual donors correlate to more partisan legislators in general and that the correlation between donors and politically polarized legislators is even greater for small individual donors than for large individual donors in most cases.
Topic:: Politics, Campaign Finance, Campaign Donations, and State Legislature
Political Geography:: Washington, California, North America, United States of America, and Oregon

19. Parliamentary Diplomacy and Normative Contestation after Coups d’État in West Africa

Author:: Nádia Teresa dos Santos Loureiro
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: This article examines how international parliamentary organisations (IPOs) engage with situations of constitutional rupture following coups d’état in West Africa, focusing on political transitions in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea (Conakry) between 2020 and 2023. It addresses how parliamentary actors, lacking coercive authority, engage in contexts marked by military takeovers, suspended constitutional frameworks and contested political legitimacy. Drawing on a constructivist and post-Westphalian perspective, the article conceptualises parliamentary diplomacy operating through discursive practices and symbolic positioning. Empirically, the analysis examines the responses of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) based on qualitative documentary analysis of resolutions, statements and institutional reports. The findings show that, despite significant political and structural constraints, IPOs contribute to articulating expectations of legitimate governance by problematising the marginalisation of parliaments and reaffirming representative institutions as expressions of popular sovereignty
Topic:: Diplomacy, Sovereignty, Legitimacy, Coup, and Parliamentary Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Africa, West Africa, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso

20. The Humanitarian Emergency Dilemma: Exploring the Consequences of Financial Cuts on Relief Efforts and At-Risk Communities

Author:: Calistus Abang
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: Funding freezes are one of the challenges prominent in the humanitarian world today, with grave consequences for programs aiding people in urgent need and beyond. Using critical discourse analysis, this study looks at the paradox of the humanitarian crisis and funding freeze, drawing on secondary data. Qualitative analysis of aid funding data, including funding in need, shows how the freeze affects the disbursement of funds and their intended recipients. It becomes visibly apparent that the freeze has multifaceted effects: stripping power from the already powerless, belittling the capacities of the neglected, pausing a system that is undermined, and hastening an erosion of trust in the institution of humanitarianism. Disproportionately, the system greatly impacts the most vulnerable, which suggests it is anything but neutral. This study confronts the glaring paradox and discusses its far-reaching implications. These implications concerning research, policy, programming, and humanitarianism paradox will, in the end, save lives.
Topic:: Humanitarian Aid, Foreign Aid, Vulnerability, and Funding Freeze
Political Geography:: Global Focus

21. Navigating Duality: The Struggle for Self-Determination of Palestine and in Postcolonial Post-Westphalian Global Order

Author:: Janees Rafiq
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The Charter of the United Nations has postulated its faith in the international community to ensure prompt and effective action; however, the UN has failed to discharge its duties towards maintaining or restoring global peace and harmony through its specific powers, including the use of humanitarian intervention. The ongoing crises in Ukraine and Palestine have highlighted the sheer apathy and ineffectiveness of international law, particularly its capacity to enforce special powers for gross human rights violations in Ukraine and Palestine. Although both Ukraine and Palestine are entitled to self-determination, the West’s response has been starkly different for each. Ukraine has received extensive support from Western states, while in the case of Palestine, the occupying state appears to benefit from Western protection, despite the International Court’s characterisation of the situation as a potential genocide against Palestinians. This disparity raises critical questions about the impartiality of international law, which theoretically holds no bias among nation-states. The research paper is based on a doctrinal study of how, in a globalised world, powerful nations' divergent responses to conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine further illustrate duplicity and inconsistency. While it remains a vital tool, it is also susceptible to political biases rooted in colonial-era legacies, particularly visible in Western states’ selective responses. Addressing this issue requires confronting the remnants of a colonial mentality that persists within the Western application of international law. The author will focus on a fundamental question: how to decolonise the application of international law to ensure equitable treatment in situations like Palestine, where the application appears markedly different from Ukraine.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, and Self-Determination
Political Geography:: Europe, Ukraine, Middle East, and Palestine

22. E-Waste as a U.S. Social Policy Challenge: Addressing Inequity, Governance Gaps, and Consumer Rights Through a Repair-Reuse-Regulate Framework

Author:: Cynthia Norgbey
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the most rapidly growing waste streams in the United States, creating pressing environmental, economic, and social challenges. The United States generates over seven million tons of e-waste each year, and has a largely unregulated system, with significant amounts of e-waste burned, landfilled, or exported to countries with weaker environmental protections. The current system is fragmented and inequitable, producing pollution, depleting resources, and perpetuating environmental injustice for both domestic and overseas communities. Without a unified federal policy, structural gaps harm consumers, communities, and the environment. The United States lacks enforceable right-to-repair laws, manufacturers face inconsistent accountability for recycling and reuse, and export loopholes allow toxic e-waste to be shipped overseas with minimal transparency. In contrast, countries in the European Union are modernizing their electronics economy through comprehensive laws that establish minimum standards for repair rights, data transparency, and producer responsibility. This paper proposes a Three-Pillar Strategy for creating an equitable and circular e-waste management system in the United States.: Repair: Enhance consumer rights and equity through national right-to-repair legislation, including requirements for parts availability, diagnostic tools, and restrictions on anti-repair practices. State-level laws in Minnesota and New York provide models. Reuse: Incentivize reuse and refurbishment at the federal level by formally recognizing it as a distinct category in the waste hierarchy, building infrastructure in schools and community institutions, and collecting consistent data on secondary markets. Regulate: Enact a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework with clear standards on takeback, design-for-recycling, and export transparency. This includes updating federal regulations and aligning U.S. law with the Basel Convention. The three-pillar approach addresses socially equitable sustainability at upstream, midstream, and downstream intervention points. Using qualitative content analysis of 23 policy documents, this paper analyzes how repair, reuse, and producer responsibility instruments are distributed across U.S. federal and state governance levels, identifying structural gaps from fragmentation and contributing to scholarship on environmental governance and extended producer responsibility. Building on these findings, the paper advances a three-pillar framework: Repair, Reuse, and Regulate, that calls for a federally coordinated approach integrating national right-to-repair legislation, reuse and refurbishment infrastructure development, and a comprehensive producer responsibility system to address these governance gaps.
Topic:: Governance, Regulation, Social Policy, Waste, Electronic Waste (E-Waste), and Consumer Rights
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

23. Piloting a Preventive Mental Health Assessment Intervention for Left-Behind Families in the Philippines

Author:: Do Minh Anh, Pragya Prachi, Anne Marie Teodosio Rey, and Wu Xiao
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: The negative psychosocial impacts of parental migration on left-behind children (LBC) presents an urgent opportunity for preventive care and systemic reform. In high-migration countries such as the Philippines, LBC face heightened risks of emotional distress, attachment disruption, and poor academic performance. The substitute caregivers, often extended family members, are frequently ill-equipped to provide consistent supervision and emotional support offered by parents. Despite growing concern, programmatic gaps persist due to limited data reporting and analysis on LBC and their caregivers. This paper recommends a scalable Mental Health Assessment and Screening Tool (MHAST) for LBC and their caregivers, integrated into the existing digital infrastructure of the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). The intervention builds on the DMW Mobile Application platform to embed mandatory caregiver arrangement and link school-aged LBC (ages 5-17) to well-being assessments administered through schools. Using two standardized screening instruments from the Child and Youth Resilience Measure Revised (CYRM-R) and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-22), these tools identify flags in emotional distress, psychological risks, and caregiving capacity to triage families into four tiers of need to activate interventions ranging from informational resources to referrals for specialized care. In partnership with schools, NGOs, and government agencies, this tool has the potential to operate at both service delivery and policy planning levels. It provides targeted support for LBC and caregivers while generating standardized, large-scale data on caregiving quality and child well-being. This data infrastructure strengthens evidence-based policymaking across child protection, labor migration, education, and public health domains. Its digital-first design and interagency implementation model ensure phased deployment and make the intervention replicable across various migration-affected contexts.
Topic:: Migration, Children, Mental Health, Resilience, Well-Being, and Digital Infrastructure
Political Geography:: Philippines and Southeast Asia

24. Transgressive Sexual Politics, Structural Homophobia: Wilders and Milei in the Global Populist Radical Right

Author:: Luca Ghislandi
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: This article examines how sexuality operates as a strategic instrument within the ideological configurations of the Populist Radical Right (PRR) by comparing Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Javier Milei in Argentina. Both leaders appear to challenge the PRR’s traditional sexual conservatism: Wilders by portraying himself as a defender of LGBT rights and Milei by performing a libertarian, sexually transgressive persona. Yet, both ultimately reproduce structural forms of homophobia. Drawing on discourse analysis, frame analysis, and process tracing, the paper argues that these seemingly divergent stances constitute localized rearticulations of the PRR’s core triad of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism. Wilders’ “civilizational liberalism” weaponizes queer rights to define Dutch identity against a racialized Muslim “Other,” enacting conditional inclusion and rendering migrant and Muslim queer subjects invisible. Milei’s “libertarian anti-statism” fuses sexual libertarianism with anti-gender politics, using anti-elitist and market-oriented rhetoric to dismantle the state infrastructures that sustain gender and sexual equality, a form of institutional subtraction. Despite opposite performances–Wilders as celibate guardian, Milei as transgressive iconoclast–both mobilize sexuality to police the boundaries of citizenship, legitimize masculine authority, and reinforce exclusionary national imaginaries. The analysis situates these cases within broader global trends in the PRR, demonstrating that contemporary far-right sexual politics no longer depend on explicit moral conservatism but instead on the modernization of homophobia: maintaining inequality through the languages of freedom, tolerance, and civilization.
Topic:: Politics, Populism, Ideology, Radical Right, and Homophobia
Political Geography:: Europe, Argentina, South America, and Netherlands

25. An Indo-Pacific Lifeline? Outcomes of Canada’s Free Trade Agreements amid North America’s Economic Pull

Author:: Tito Almeida
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: Rising global protectionism has renewed Canada’s strategic imperative to diversify its trade beyond the United States, given its longstanding export dependence. While the Indo-Pacific remains central to Canada’s foreign policy and trade diversification ambitions, there remains limited consensus on whether the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) have meaningfully increased Canada’s exports to partner countries. This study addresses this gap in the literature by estimating the impact of these agreements on Canada’s exports, and identifying which types of firms have driven these outcomes. Using a panel dataset of bilateral goods exports from 2010 to 2024 and estimating two-way fixed effects and difference-in-differences regressions, the article examines the short-term effects of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) implementation, while controlling for macroeconomic and institutional conditions in partner economies. Although statistically insignificant, this study found that Canada’s exports to high-income Indo-Pacific partners rose modestly after FTA entry, with SMEs recording the strongest gains. In contrast, it estimates Canada’s exports to middle-income partners declined across all categories of firms. With Canada aiming to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade, this article suggests that future studies on free trade agreements should continue to investigate partner countries’ levels of industrialization and the role of firms as drivers of export growth.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, Exports, Protectionism, and Free Trade Agreements
Political Geography:: Canada, North America, and Indo-Pacific

26. Sovereignty in Exile: Deterritorialized Statehood and Adaptive Governance for Climate-Displaced Pacific Island Nations

Author:: Valerie Chua
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: For millennia, Pacific Island communities have thrived in profound interdependence with their natural environment, relying on the ocean and ecosystems for sustenance, cultural identity, and economic vitality. Today, climate change disrupts this delicate balance. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events accelerate ecosystem degradation and undermine the physical and economic sustainability of ancestral homelands. As land becomes uninhabitable, communities face mass displacement, forced to leave their homes—and even their countries—in search of safety. Because international statehood remains predicated on land possession, this loss of territory threatens to erase the legal standing, sovereign rights, and collective cultural identity of Pacific Island communities. This article advocates for the international recognition of deterritorialized statehood—a model in which nations retain their legal sovereignty, international recognition, and cultural-political identity without basing their legal claims on territorial possession. This model offers a pragmatic path forward for Pacific Island nations by addressing the realities of climate-induced displacement without compromising the sovereign self-determination of its people. To achieve this vision, the international community must work alongside Pacific Island governments to implement three key policy transformations: (1) legal reforms to secure sovereign recognition post-territorial loss, (2) institutional reforms to govern dispersed populations, and (3) community preparedness initiatives to ensure cultural continuity and political participation across diasporas.
Topic:: Climate Change, Sovereignty, Governance, Exile, and Climate Governance
Political Geography:: Pacific Islands

27. Resisting Digital Colonialism and Protecting Subaltern Agency in Africa

Author:: Sylvia Ayesu
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:: School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:: As African states accelerate digital transformation, they do so within a global political economy of data, artificial intelligence, and surveillance technologies dominated by foreign corporations and external regulatory norms. This article examines how contemporary forms of digital colonialism, characterized by asymmetrical data extraction, technological dependency, and externally imposed governance frameworks, constrain political autonomy and reproduce historical patterns of domination. Moving beyond narratives of victimhood, the article foregrounds subaltern agency by analyzing how African governments and civil society actors actively resist, negotiate, and reconfigure these power relations. Focusing on three illustrative cases in Kenya—the implementation of the Data Protection Act, the diffusion of Chinese-built smart city projects, and the rise of civil society-led data justice movements—the article analyzes how power asymmetries are negotiated within contemporary digital governance. It argues that prevailing global Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data governance frameworks inadequately incorporate African political priorities, thereby reproducing dependency rather than enabling sovereignty. It concludes by proposing policy pathways to strengthen African digital self-determination, including regulatory capacity enhancement, safeguarding transparency in technology procurement, and promoting civic oversight.
Topic:: Political Economy, Science and Technology, Transparency, Self-Determination, Extractivism, Agency, and Digital Colonialism
Political Geography:: Africa

28. From Digitalization to Forest Pedagogy: Innovative Educational Pathways for Sustainable Development in Poland

Author:: Szymon Godawa
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: Education for sustainable development (ESD) requires new forms of teacher preparation that combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience. The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of workshop-based classes designed to develop micro-competences – understood here as narrowly defined, measurable components of professional competences that can be certified through micro-credentials in accordance with European Commission guidelines (2022). The research was qualitative in nature and was conducted within the interpretive paradigm. Participant observation and document analysis were applied, including thematic analysis of didactic commentaries following Braun & Clarke’s (2006) procedure. The study involved 70 fifth-year students of preschool and early school pedagogy, who participated in 15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of exercises dedicated to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda. The results show that students significantly developed social competences (teamwork, empathy, communication), the ability to integrate theory with practice, and critical thinking regarding socio-ecological challenges. They demonstrated high readiness to implement educational innovations and to apply the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). However, deficiencies were observed in entrepreneurial competences, particularly in planning and initiating micro-enterprises, which indicates the need to strengthen economic and career education in teacher training. These findings confirm that well-structured, experiential ESD activities are an effective means of preparing future teachers for the challenges of the 21st century. They also highlight the need to supplement curricula with elements developing entrepreneurial and systemic thinking, which are crucial for building ecological social capital and promoting lifelong learning.
Topic:: Education, Pedagogy, Innovation, Digitalization, Sustainable Development, Credentials, and Experiential Learning
Political Geography:: Europe and Poland

29. Resilience and Cross-Border Cooperation in Cultural Heritage Protection: The Lublin Triangle’s Response to Ukraine’s Cultural Crisis

Author:: Elżbieta Olzacka and Katarzyna Pasternak
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The article examines how Poland and Lithuania supported Ukraine’s cultural heritage during Russia’s full scale invasion and clarifies the Lublin Triangle’s primarily political, solidarity building function rather than an operational delivery role. Drawing on qualitative analysis of official documents, institutional reports, public communications, and stakeholder interviews, it evaluates cultural sector responses in 2022–2023 with attention to delivery capacity, coordination, and sustainability. The study finds that targeted aid to museums, archives, and memory institutions was provided chiefly through bilateral and institution to institution mechanisms, while the Lublin Triangle consolidated political messaging without generating rapid tools for cultural protection. Across cases, core contribution areas included logistics (protective materials and transport), training (emergency safeguarding and evacuation), documentation (damage assessment and digitization), and international advocacy (UNESCO aligned actions and anti trafficking guidance). The analysis underscores the need to institutionalize hybrid, apolitical arrangements that couple governmental legitimacy with the flexibility and resilience of civil society networks, mitigating vulnerability to political cycles and sustaining cultural heritage protection under wartime conditions.
Topic:: Museums, Resilience, Heritage, Cooperation, Protection, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:: Europe, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Lublin Triangle

30. When Weak States Win: A Supermodular Game-Theoretic Account of the 2006 Bolivia–Brazil Gas Crisis

Author:: Rodrigo Lyra and Manoel Galdino
Publication Date:: 07-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: What if third-party involvement and economic interdependence, often assumed to foster compromise, are precisely what entrench escalation in international negotiations? This paper introduces a supermodular game-theoretic framework to explain how indirect third-party alignment and domestic political constraints can produce strategic complementarities that lock actors into rigid bargaining positions. Drawing on an analytic narrative of the 2006 Bolivia–Brazil gas negotiations, we demonstrate how Venezuela’s political and financial backing emboldened Bolivia to harden its stance, while Brazil’s capacity to respond assertively was neutralized by domestic audience costs, intensified by electoral pressures. The result was not mediation or de-escalation, but a contested equilibrium shaped by positive feedback dynamics. Our findings show that third-party support can strategically reshape payoff structures in ways that incentivize escalation, even under conditions of deep interdependence. This framework advances the study of international negotiations by modelling how escalation can emerge endogenously from the strategic structure of trilateral interactions.
Topic:: Gas, Negotiation, Crisis Management, Game Theory, and Supermodular Game Theory
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and Bolivia

31. The Renewed Promise of Hegemony

Author:: Sean Burges and Fabricio H. Chagas-Bastos
Publication Date:: 07-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: Contemporary world order exhibits interdependence without a single state able to impose ordering principles unilaterally and without the hegemonic war often presumed to clear the slate. Scholarship conflates dominant power with the order it sponsors, so criticism of the liberal international order (LIO) is read as an attack on primacy. This article theorises hegemony, in Gramscian terms, as a relational ordering structure that fuses coercion, political economy, and ideas, and that endures through absorption and co-option of dissent. Challenges are incorporated through selective concessions and institutional redesign, diluting their transformative content while reiterating core principles. Our argument decouples power transition from order transition, moving debate beyond collapse versus persistence by advancing an analytically tractable account of adaptive endurance that shows how hegemonic orders renew themselves through the managed incorporation of critique into institutional reform.
Topic:: International Relations, Hegemony, Liberal Order, International Order, and Interdependence
Political Geography:: Global Focus

32. From fragmentation to integration: China’s “Vertical-Horizontal Model” for the protection of overseas interests

Author:: Zhiqiang Zou, Degang Sun, and Jinan Wang
Publication Date:: 07-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, China’s overseas interests have been faced with a growing array of multidimensional threats. China has carried out legislative and institutional reforms, forming a “vertical-horizontal model” for interagency cooperation and government-society fusion. The central government of China has passed a series of legislative acts to legalise China’s protection of overseas interests, a top-down vertical governance. Parallel ministries, departments, and offices have formed task-based institutions through consultation to promote China’s overseas interest protection, thereby establishing a cross-sectoral horizontal governance mechanism. The implementation of the “vertical-horizontal model,” however, confronts an array of hurdles, with heavy bureaucracy potentially giving rise to problems such as inefficiency and collective irresponsibility.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Government, Reform, Legislation, Institutions, and Vertical-Horizontal Model
Political Geography:: China and Asia

33. Fascism in Football: How the Beautiful Game Turned Ugly

Author:: Gabriele Cosentino
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: December 26, 2018 was supposed to be an exciting day for Italian football fans: it was the first time matches of the top national league, Serie A, were scheduled during the Christmas holidays, to add some sports fun to the festive season. The big match of the day was Inter Milan vs Napoli, a classic face-off between two of the most prominent teams in Italy. The post-match TV coverage, however, did not dwell on scored goals or athletic feats, but rather on the violent riots among Inter and Napoli fans that left one man dead. During the riots, Daniele Belardinelli, a supporter of the Italian team Varese, was mowed down by an SUV driven by a Napoli fan. Belardinelli was an ultrà, a slang term used to identify hardcore football fans, in Italy and across Europe. Ultras are a fixture of Italian football, well known for expressing their diehard fandom through colorful, sometimes scurrilous chants and highly choreographic banners. Unfortunately, they are also notorious for their racist and violent behavior and, increasingly, engagement in political extremism and illegal activities. While some ultras groups subscribe to progressive or leftist ideology, the great majority lean to the far-right. Often, groups supporting different teams form bonds along ideological lines. Ultras of Varese and Inter are both far-right oriented and have a long history of political alignment and mutual support. Belardinelli had joined fans of Inter Milan in an ambush against a busload of Napoli fans. Despite the attack’s careful planning—which managed to defy the police intervention—he was caught off guard by the car that rammed into the crowd of Inter fans and took his life.
Topic:: Politics, Fascism, Far Right, and Football
Political Geography:: Europe

34. Critical Education in the Age of Trump’s Fascist Politics

Author:: Henry A. Giroux
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: We live in a dangerous historical moment when fascist politics no longer lurk on the margins but occupy the centers of power. Across the globe—from the United States to Hungary, Chile, India, and Argentina, and elsewhere—authoritarian regimes are hollowing out democracy, merging violence with spectacle, and transforming education into a battlefield over truth itself. Journalists increasingly describe this shift as a “campaign of annihilation”. What is under assault is not simply the university or the classroom, but the capacity to think, remember, and act collectively. The struggle over education is therefore the struggle over democracy’s very promise. To reclaim education as a public good is, therefore, to reclaim the means through which consciousness becomes political, and politics becomes collective. The question before us is not merely whether education matters, but whether it can still awaken a public imagination capable of turning thought into resistance, and resistance into mass action. In such times, the issue is also whether education can survive as a democratic force in an age of emerging fascism across the globe.
Topic:: Education, Democracy, Fascism, and Donald Trump
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

35. Urbicide and the Brutal Unmaking of the City in Gaza

Author:: Muhammad Alaraby
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: The war in Gaza speaks volumes about the future of warfare—privatized by mercenaries, automated by the large-scale deployment of AI-enabled weaponry, mediated by the live transmission of atrocities, and totally urbanized as they erase life in city centres. Although the human losses in Gaza are staggering—killing 70 thousand people, amounting to outright ‘genocide’—the war has also resulted in large-scale ‘urbicide’ through the annihilation of Gaza’s city spaces. Yet, this aspect of war will not end as the dust of destruction settles; it may resume with a new peace plan that opens Gaza to global capital to reshape its future, as envisioned by Trump.
Topic:: Genocide, Artificial Intelligence, 2023 Gaza War, Urbicide, and Urban Warfare
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Gaza

36. When European Semi-Fascism and Israeli Occupation Converge

Author:: Erwin van Veen
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: Semi-fascist parties in Europe support the exclusionary politics of Israel’s ultra-nationalists and ultra-religionists, raising concerns about their own plans once in office.
Topic:: Nationalism, Politics, Occupation, Fascism, Far Right, and Political Extremism
Political Geography:: Europe, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

37. Using Sex to Sell Racism: How AfD Policies Defy Logic

Author:: Dagmar Herzog
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: The sexual politics of the new far-right parties like the Alternative für Deutschland are full of deliberate contradictions and obvious echoes of Nazism.
Topic:: Far Right, Sexuality, Alternative for Germany (AfD), and Nazism
Political Geography:: Europe and Germany

38. Evaluation of Feminist Philosophy of Begum Rokeya Shakawat Hussain with Other Scholars in the Pre-and Post-Colonial Era

Author:: Md. Habibur Rahman and Md. Aktarul Islam
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Political Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: Mrs. S.R. Hussain, unanimously well-known as Begum Rokeya Shakawat Hussain or simply Begum Rokeya, was a Bengali feminist writer, and social activist who advocated throughout her lifetime for women’s education and socio-economic emancipation. Her roles in the awakening of the Bengali women of Bangladesh and India will always be remembered with reverence and inspired thousands to break the shackles of the vicious circle of backwardness and superstitions. The main objective of this research paper is to evaluate the feminist philosophy of Rokeya with that of other change makers in the pre-and post-colonial era. Furthermore, it has focused on Rokeya’s feminist philosophy and the contributions of other celebrated feminist activists around the world. This research has followed the qualitative approach by reviewing secondary data and information. The findings of this research have shown that some women who initiated various reformation movements in Bengal were vocal in bringing about socio-economic changes and fought against injustice and discrimination alongside their male counterparts. The global feminist and Islamic divine books have also played a vital role for women’s rights and empowerment. The philosophy and contributions of Begum Rokeya’s work are the major catalysts for eliminating gender disparity and balanced development in society.
Topic:: Human Rights, Women, Philosophy, Feminism, Post-Colonial, and Begum Rokeya
Political Geography:: Bangladesh and South Asia

39. India's Neighbourhood PolicyA Collaborative Approach or a Bid for Dominance

Author:: Rabbani Attar and Anusha Attar
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Political Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: The turmoil in India's neighbouring countries can largely be attributed to the framework of India's neighbourhood policy: its underlying principles, strategy, and implementation. The principles refer to the norms and practices guiding the policy; the strategy involves how priorities are structured; and the implementation pertains to the methods of execution. These norms shape the actions taken to achieve set objectives, while priorities dictate the order and significance assigned to those objectives. The modes represent the pathways through which the policy is carried out. This paper critically examines the principles, priorities, and methods of India's policy towards its neighbors, suggesting that India seeks to establish dominance and often presents its national interests as those of the entire region.
Topic:: Hegemony, Strategic Interests, Regional Politics, and Regional Stability
Political Geography:: South Asia and India

40. Commentary: Democracy, Democratization, Institutions, and Inequality: Nobel-Winning Insights from Daron Acemoglu and His Collaborators

Author:: Ali Resul Usul
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: This paper explores the seminal contributions of Daron Acemoglu and his collaborators to the understanding of democracy, democratization, institutions, and inequality, as recognized by the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. It delves into the stability and erosion of democratic institutions, emphasizing the interplay between historical legacies, class structures, and strategic political interactions. The analysis synthesizes insights from rational choice theory, historical institutionalism, and comparative political economy, highlighting the critical role of both formal and informal institutions in shaping political outcomes. Key concepts such as critical junctures, path dependence, and the dynamic balance between state capacity and societal power— termed the “Red Queen effect”—are examined to explain the persistence and transformation of political regimes. The paper also addresses the implications of economic inequality for democratic stability and the continuous process of adaptation required to maintain inclusive institutions. By integrating theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence, this work provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex dynamics of democratization and offers policy recommendations for strengthening democratic resilience in the face of contemporary challenges.
Topic:: Democratization, Democracy, Inequality, Institutions, and Path Dependence
Political Geography:: Global Focus

41. Forever the Frenemies of the Middle East? Türkiye’s Regional Relations with Iran, 2002 to 2023

Author:: Cem Savaş
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: This article investigates the puzzle of Türkiye’s fluctuating relations with Iran since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Contrary to many scholars’ expectations, the AKP government’s relations with Iran have competition and rivalry rather than just cooperation. Having improved significantly in the early 2000s, the relations became tense following the Arab uprisings and Syria’s civil war. However, the relations between the two countries have included both cooperative and conflictual elements since 2016. This research argues that the most relevant level for analyzing Türkiye’s fluctuating foreign policy strategies toward Iran between 2002 and 2023 is regional. Using the regionalist approaches of Buzan and Wæver’s Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) and Lake and Morgan’s theory of regional orders, the article examines how the “local security externalities” of the Middle Eastern regional security complex (RSC) affect Türkiye-Iran regional relations by particularly focusing on speech acts of Turkish high-level foreign policy actors. By acknowledging the multi-layered nature of Middle Eastern politics, this study also considers the role of extra-regional actors and non-state armed groups in Turkish foreign policy attitudes toward Iran.
Topic:: International Relations, AKP, Regional Security, Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT), Foreign Policy, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Iran, Turkey, and Middle East

42. The Logic of Foreign Policy: An Explanatory Model for Strategic Volatility in Turkish Foreign Policy Under the AKP Rule

Author:: Erol Kurubaş
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:: Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:: The AKP government in Türkiye has been following a foreign policy based on values and discourses rather than power and interests. However, despite the lack of a radical change in international conditions, contrasting approaches in terms of the nature of foreign policy, strategic orientation, foreign relations, and international image have been adopted by the same government over short intervals of time. While a first period was marked by a value-laden transformation, a second was marked by righteous and romantic discourse and actions pointing to more value-based mentality. In a third period, foreign policy was guided by a logic based on a populist and opportunist approach. This paper calls each of these bases that shape foreign policy a different logic of foreign policy. Accordingly, while the logic of the first period was constructed in “the modified base logic” and led to the quest for strategic depth in foreign policy, the logic of the second became “righteous-romantic” and resulted in “strategic instability”. The logic of third, on the other hand, was shaped by its reactive form and led to “strategic uncertainty”. In this way, the paper argues that the strategic volatility in Turkish Foreign Policy can be explained by the elements that constitute the logic of foreign policy and the interactions among them.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, AKP, and Volatility
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

43. Analysis of Van Province’s Migration from Iran by Geographically Weighted Regression Method

Author:: Bahadır Yüzbaşı and Çetin Görür
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: The ability of migrants to adapt to their new environment in a short period of time while establishing a new life is an important factor affecting the welfare of both individuals and societies. The process of adaptation can determine the quality of life of the individual, reflecting the migrant’s ability to adapt socially, economically and culturally to their new environment. Adaptation in the new life after migration is usually associated with factors such as age, post-migration support from public institutions, postmigration support from relatives, post-migration support from neighbors, and inadequate educational opportunities. In this study, migration from Iran to Van province was analyzed using the geographically weighted regression (GWR) method. The analysis focused on identifying the factors that influence individuals’ responses to the statement “I adapted to my new life in a short time after migration”. According to the analysis results, it is observed that the GWR method gives stronger results. In comparison to the ordinary least squares (OLS) model, the GWR model demonstrates clear superiority across all evaluation criteria, indicating that the GWR model provides a substantially better fit to the data by capturing spatial variability more effectively.
Topic:: Migration, Integration, Forced Migration, Spatial Heterogeneity, and Local Modeling
Political Geography:: Iran, Turkey, Middle East, and Van

44. Impact of Migration Policies on Ukrainian Migrants in Turkey: Embrace vs Provision

Author:: Şebnem Köşer Akçapar and Filiz Tutku Aydın
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: The aim of this study is to elucidate decision-making processes of Ukrainian forced migrants of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds relocated in Turkey in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian War since 2022. We examine trends in prospective plans, including return, settlement, migration to third countries, and identify key factors influencing social integration in Turkey. To this end, extensive field research was conducted in five provinces in Turkey – İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Eskişehir and Antalya – between 2022 and 2024. This study employed qualitative method consisting of in-depth interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, including Ukrainian diplomatic representatives, migrant organizations, Turkish provincial migration management officials, and post-2022 Ukrainian migrants who were residing in Turkey under various statuses. The findings indicated that decisions between permanence and transience were determined by the state’s migrant and asylum policies along the embrace and provision continuum. In addition, active involvement of ethnic organizations of Ukrainians in migration processes appear to act as a factor that either triggers or hinders social cohesion.
Topic:: Asylum, Decision-Making, Forced Migration, Migrants, Russia-Ukraine War, and Migration Policy
Political Geography:: Turkey, Ukraine, and Middle East

45. Diplomacy Meets Paradiplomacy: Unpacking Central Government Responses through Evidence from Turkey’s Paradiplomac

Author:: Esra Kaya Erdoğan and Emrah Atar
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: This study examines the central government’s response to the paradiplomacy of sub-state actors through an analysis of the Turkish case, using a qualitative approach. As part of this research, a total of twelve face-to-face or virtual interviews were conducted with the representatives from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Marmara Municipalities Union, and academics between June 2023 and November 2023. It views paradiplomacy as an outcome of the ongoing trend to localize diplomacy and aims to identify varying central government responses to paradiplomacy. These responses are analyzed using a three-fold categorization: positive, negative and mixed. The characteristics of each category explored in the context of the Turkish case. The study suggests that, despite the central government’s opportunistic approach to paradiplomacy, its response has shown a cyclical tendency. The central government’s stance on paradiplomacy is therefore complex and politically driven. It fluctuates along a broad spectrum, ranging from direct support to outright exclusion. This reflects the shifting political dynamics in Turkey.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Government, Governance, Municipalities, and Sub-state Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Turkey and Middle East

46. The European Court of Human Rights Framework of the Property Issue in Cyprus: An Evaluation of the Immovable Property Commission

Author:: Perçem Arman and Özde Bayraktar
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: Despite being physically divided in 1974, no peace agreement has been made in Cyprus since then. Amongst the issues awaiting solution, perhaps the most difficult one is the property issue. Problems related to property rights have been brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on several occasions. This study focuses on the Immovable Property Commission (IPC), which was established in accordance with the jurisprudence of the ECtHR. In a frozen conflict environment, the ECtHR, although not a transitional justice mechanism for resolving human rights violations in armed conflicts, occasionally plays an effective role in pressuring national authorities to repair the destructive effects of conflict periods. This study assesses the effectiveness of the IPC’s role in addressing property issues in general and within this specific context.
Topic:: Displacement, Transitional Justice, Property, Compensation, and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, Cyprus, and Mediterranean

47. What Luck Has to Do With It: Understanding the Role of Nuclear Luck in Decision-Making

Author:: Tyrus Tibor Kalanyos
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: Since the end of the Second World War and the start of the Nuclear Age, there have been numerous cases of nuclear near-use or near-incidents. This article makes a case for how luck, particularly nuclear luck, has not only been an essential variable in preventing nuclear wars and uses, but also how experiences with nuclear luck have shaped the decision-making process in America and the Soviet Union. Through case study analyses of the War Scare events in the early 1980s, primarily the Able Archer-83 incident and the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident, the paper identifies attitude and policy shifts in decision-makers’ posture towards nuclear security with an understanding of political psychology scholarship. The findings suggest that experiences of nuclear luck can lead to more careful and risk-averse behaviour, the paper also highlights how the relationship between nuclear luck and the decision-making process can advance theories on behavioural arms control.
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, Nuclear Weapons, Decision-Making, and Luck
Political Geography:: Soviet Union, Global Focus, and United States of America

48. Military Peace Leadership to Protect the Force and Civilians in an Ever-Changing Environment

Author:: Omar Martin Tejada Perez
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: This article explains how peace operations have evolved in response to constant and dynamic changes in conflict environments. This situation challenges traditional military leadership styles and approaches, which are mostly anchored in a conventional warfare mindset, one of the main reasons for the major failures in protecting United Nations forces and local civilians on the ground. Three examples of leadership stories that have positively impacted people on the ground, despite the adversity they faced, together with theoretical leadership approaches, form the analytical frame that leads to some conclusions and recommendations. In this sense, military education, social skills and capabilities, as well as civil and military interaction and coordination, are some topics revisited throughout the document.
Topic:: United Nations, Peacekeeping, Leadership, and Protection
Political Geography:: Global Focus

49. The PATRIOT Act: The Friction Between Civil Liberties and National Security

Author:: Megan Saito
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: The shock that followed the attacks of 9/11 prompted the American public to urge the United States government to increase the protection of national security. The PATRIOT Act was created in response to these demands and set out to detect and prevent acts of terrorism from reoccurring in the United States of America. Since the conception of the PATRIOT Act, privacy advocates and civil liberties groups have been protesting the Act's ability to 'infringe' on American citizens’ amendments protected by the United States Constitution. This article responds to the questions to what degree does the Patriot Act infringe upon civil liberties?
Topic:: National Security, 9/11, Civil Liberties, and Patriot Act
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

50. Israel, Qatar, and the Hierarchy of Warning

Author:: Muhammed Ziyade
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: On September 9, 2025, Israeli missiles struck a residential neighbourhood in Doha while U.S. Space Force tracked the operation in real time and relayed no warning to Qatar — the very state that hosts CENTCOM's forward headquarters. This study traces the detection-to-dissemination chain across the September 9th strike and two prior Iranian missile attacks on U.S. bases in Erbil (2020) and Al-Udeid (2025), and demonstrates that who fires the missile determines whether the warning precedes the impact. The Qualitative Military Edge doctrine, codified in U.S. law since 2008, sustains this hierarchy. Its operational consequence is stark: Iranian threats activated direct military channels within minutes, while the Israeli attack routed through a four-layer political chain (CENTCOM to President to Special Envoy to Qatar). September 9th exposes a most-favoured-nation design in American alliance architecture and compels Gulf capitals to construct sovereign early warning capabilities that do not route through the political hierarchies of their guarantors.
Topic:: Military Affairs, Alliance, Space Force, Quantitative Military Edge (QME), and CENTCOM
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Qatar, and United States of America

51. Manageable Mandate or Mission Creep? The Canadian Armed Forces Assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies

Author:: David Sopotyk
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: This paper examines the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) assistance to law enforcement agencies (LEA) and seeks to answer the question if CAF involvement is permitted? More precisely, is this action legal or does it represent mission creep by the CAF that should be of concern to Canada’s democracy? An analysis of CAF support to LEA via the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) is used as the case most likely to elicit legal difficulties. This analysis finds that even given NORAD’s assistance to LEA (chosen as the most likely scenario of potential mission creep for the CAF given that Canadian military are operating in the United States with US LEA), the activities were within the bounds of the National Defence Act and given approval by the Canadian national command authority (the Prime Minister). Ultimately, this paper concludes that the CAF’s assistance to LEA is not mission creep so long as the authorities and processes in place are respected.
Topic:: Law Enforcement, Armed Forces, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and Mission Creep
Political Geography:: Canada and North America

52. From Seeds to Suffering: Herbicides, Environmental Degradation and Slow Violence

Author:: Alexandra Pacheco Hardwicke
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: Warfare almost always results in the destruction of the environment, yet the devastation extends far beyond the immediate physical consequences of battle. Historically, natural environments have played an integral role in human conflict, from land disputes to armed conflict and terrorism. Starving the enemy through attacking livestock, contaminating water resources, and scorched earth tactics are a few of the many ways in which the environment has been weaponized during war. Environmental security, particularly in the context of armed conflict, is an evolving field. The incorporation of slow violence may provide a critical framework to analyze post-war impacts and long-term ecological harm in ways traditional security studies tends to overlook.
Topic:: Environment, Violence, Environmental Security, Warfare, and Herbicides
Political Geography:: Global Focus

53. Emerging Powers’ Engagement in International Organizations: The Case of Vietnam’s Multilateral Diplomacy

Author:: Tran Chi Trung and Hoang Hien Thuong
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: It is widely believed that, with greater political and economic influence, emerging powers are increasingly playing larger roles within international institutions, ranging from global organisations, regional organisations, to various alternative platforms of minilateralism or coalition of the willing. Despite growing debates about the motivations of emerging powers when engaging in both new regional organisations and existing global institutions, there is limited research explaining this from the perspective of these nations. Hence, this article addresses this gap by studying the case of Vietnam’s multilateral diplomacy since 2021. The article adopts a qualitative research design, combining discourse analysis of official speeches, policy documents, and a case study of Vietnam’s participation in international and regional organisations following the new foreign policy direction of Viet Nam since 2021. We argue that while Vietnam and other emerging powers share a common aspiration for a more multipolar and equitable international order, their multilateral strategies diverge according to distinct priorities and challenges. After its 13th National Congress in 2021, Vietnam’s foreign policy focuses on leveraging multilateral institutions to heighten the country's international influence and position. Aiming to become a regional leader, Viet Nam has been more proactive in leading ASEAN’s agenda and pathways forward, advancing its convening capacity, and acting as a linchpin between ASEAN and regional and international organisations. While at the global level, Viet Nam is stepping up as a sectoral leader, focusing on new fields and domains of global governance to shape a conducive future for its national development path.
Topic:: Diplomacy, International Organization, Multilateralism, ASEAN, and Regional Organizations
Political Geography:: Vietnam and Southeast Asia

54. American Populism, American Personhood

Author:: Colin Anthony MacNairn
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: Current American populism—an endogenous product of liberal capitalism— functions less as an interruption of liberal democracy than as the political form through which its contradictions are expressed. Starting from that premise, this essay traces how citizens, rendered economically superfluous and politically abstracted, reach for meaning through affective grievance—grievance that populism captures, reroutes, and converts into allegiance. By placing C.B. Macpherson’s critique of possessive individualism in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s analysis of moral incapacitation, A.N. Whitehead’s insights on simplified ideals, and Kant’s republican account of public right, this essay reconstructs the mechanisms by which structural dispossession is transformed into cultural antagonism. Through political-theoretical argument augmented with empirical illustrations, this essay provocatively demonstrates that American populism’s emotional economy reinforces the very structure it claims to resist and why any democratic renewal ought to begin with a reconstruction of personhood itself
Topic:: Politics, Capitalism, Populism, Donald Trump, Illiberal Democracy, Critical Democratic Theory, and New Democratic Theory
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

55. Strategic Resource Nationalism and the Role of Rare Earths in EU Economic Security

Author:: Upasna Mishra
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: Rare earth elements (REEs) have become a critical factor in contemporary geopolitical and economic statecraft, particularly within the framework of strategic resource nationalism. China’s dominance, accounting for over 60% of global REE production and a larger share of processing capacity, presents a significant supply chain vulnerability for import-dependent actors like the European Union (EU). The EU’s strategic sectors—including renewable energy, defence, and digital technologies—are acutely exposed to potential supply disruptions, prompting a concerted policy response. This paper tries to examine how REE dependencies shape global trade and security. It evaluates EU initiatives like the Critical Raw Materials Act, which aims to mitigate supply chain vulnerability through diversification and strategic partnerships. The green and digital transitions intensify the need for secure REEs for key technologies. However, challenges like environmental impacts and high costs persist. This paper focuses on how the REEs could shape future geopolitical alignments and define economic stability in an increasingly competitive global landscape
Topic:: European Union, Geopolitics, Strategic Competition, Economic Security, Rare earth elements (REEs), and Strategic Resource Nationalism
Political Geography:: Europe

56. Between Realism and Constructivism: Theorising Foreign Policy Shifts After the Israel-Gaza War

Author:: Abeeta Hilal and Meha Pant
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The Israel-Gaza conflict, following the events of October 7, reignited global scrutiny of foreign policy postures, revealing a stark contrast between official state narratives and widespread public dissent. Whereas most governments resorted to a complex of realism in the reassertion of the strategic alliances and security interests, the responses of civil society, such as protests, advocacy, and media critique, emphasised the increasing pressure of a constructivist, norm-based approach to international engagement. This changing dynamic, the literature tends to present realism and constructivism as pugnacious rather than complementary paradigms, leaving a considerable gap in explaining the complexity of modern foreign policy-making. The theoretical deficit is addressed in the current paper, which examines changes in foreign policy from an integrative perspective that reconciles realist and constructivist theories. Using qualitative and historical data, the study analyses Western responses to the Israel-Gaza war, revealing tensions between strategic interests and ideological principles, requiring hybrid theoretical approaches.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Public Opinion, Realism, Constructivism, Norms, and 2023 Gaza War
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, and Gaza

57. Russia's Fragile Balance of Global and Regional Alliances: The Formation and Evolution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Author:: Ilias Tasopoulos
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The article examines the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in shaping regional and international dynamics, with particular attention to Russia’s participation, drawing on insights from the Copenhagen School. It explores how the SCO advances a distinct model of regional governance, thereby influencing the political and strategic trajectories of its member states and neighbouring regions. Russia views the SCO as a platform that reflects its dual strategic orientation: engaging in regional multilateral frameworks to safeguard its immediate interests, while simultaneously seeking to assert greater status within the international system. The expansion of the SCO’s membership is evaluated, as it represents a broadening of its reach and influence. Russia’s engagement within this framework is explored, highlighting its evolving relationship with China in the aftermath of the 2022 Ukraine war. Ultimately, the article positions the SCO within the broader analytical context of international relations theory, assessing its contribution to the configuration of the global balance of power.
Topic:: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Regional Organizations, and Strategic Alliances
Political Geography:: Russia, China, Eurasia, and Asia

58. Analysis of Emerging Powers Joining to International and Regional Organisations: Intentions and Implications

Author:: Mojtaba Eskandari, Farhad Farahani, Somayeh Hamidi, and Sara Torabian
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The significant growth of regional and global cooperation in economic, military, and ideological areas is a common feature of modern diplomacy, as states have been continuously expanding these efforts. In today's geopolitics, these collaborations are not limited to specific regions but extend to superregional and global levels; this is evident in emerging powers that seek to increase their global influence through mutual agreements and the creation of regional or international organisations. The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the strategic considerations behind emerging powers' involvement in multilateral frameworks. Being part of international and regional organisations allows them to coordinate efforts and play a vital role in shaping the international order. To achieve this goal, a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis will be used, including analysis of documents, policies, expert reviews, and historical case studies.
Topic:: Diplomacy, International Organization, Regional Cooperation, International Order, and Emerging Powers
Political Geography:: Global Focus

59. Dignity, Responsibility and Reciprocity: A Framework for Non-International Armed Conflicts

Author:: Samuel Jesus
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: This research aims to integrate Mario Bettati's Critical Globalist Theory within the framework of non-international armed conflicts, alongside Jean-Pierre Dupuy's ethical relationalism, particularly in the application of International Humanitarian Law. Human dignity stands as the fundamental focus of ethics amid the complexities of non-international armed conflicts. The Law of Armed Conflict faces challenges due to human objectification that arises from ruthless utilitarian armed interventions. In this context, conflicting parties must establish minimum moral limits for warfare and regulate global institutions to ensure human rights and accountability. Reciprocity, rooted in recognising globalising concepts, demonstrates that one actor's actions affect others and the global community. In this light, the isolationism, utilitarianism, and mercantilism of warfare used as state hermeneutic criteria for population protection are supplanted by dignity, responsibility, and reciprocity, thereby contributing to the renewal of global humanism and the minimum guarantee of protection within the realm of armed conflict.
Topic:: International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Armed Conflict, Dignity, and Reciprocity
Political Geography:: Global Focus

60. Understanding the Politics of the Denial of Genocide Recognition: The Case of the Rohingya

Author:: Nahian Salsabeel and Faria Ulfath Leera
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The atrocities committed against the Rohingya people by Myanmar have not translated into any unified actions by the regional and international community. This qualitative research seeks to uncover the regional and global responses that have negatively influenced the formal recognition of the genocide against the Rohingya people, as well as the limited nature of mediation efforts. To do so, this chapter will draw on established research on the geopolitics of genocide denial and the Rohingya crisis. Consequently, the authors connect the existing research gap, explaining why some state and non-state actors have been reluctant to recognise the acts of genocide against the Rohingya people in Myanmar over the decades. The paper sheds light on the international state and non-state actors influencing the geopolitics of genocide recognition, concluding that the denial of the genocide against the Rohingya community is significantly influenced by complex geopolitical situations.
Topic:: Genocide, Non State Actors, Geopolitics, and Rohingya
Political Geography:: Southeast Asia and Myanmar

61. Russia-Africa Relations amid Global Geopolitical Shifts

Author:: Wojciech Kotowicz
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The article examines the dynamics of Russia’s relations with African states against the backdrop of the post-2022 transformation of the international system. The research objective is to identify the geopolitical motivations behind Russia’s engagement in Africa, assess the instruments used to implement this policy, and delineate the prospects and constraints for Russia-Africa relations under conditions of growing multipolarity. The author argues that Russia’s expansion in Africa – though catalyzed by the international isolation resulting from its aggression against Ukraine – forms part of a broader strategy to assemble an alternative, anti-Western bloc in which Africa plays a key legitimating and symbolic role. The analysis covers the historical foundations of Russia-Africa relations from the Cold War era, the geopolitical drivers of Russia’s post-2022 engagement, and the instruments of Russian policy toward Africa, with particular attention to the military, economic, and information domains. The study shows that African states – especially military juntas in the Sahel – are not passive objects of Russian manipulation but active players pursuing their own survival strategies by diversifying international partnerships. The material underpinnings of Russia’s engagement, however, remain fragile: limited investment, a focus on extractive and defense sectors, and rising reputational costs indicate that Moscow is maximizing influence at minimal cost. The conclusion holds that the durability of Russia’s presence in Africa will be tested by the Kremlin’s capacity to sustain engagement amid a protracted war in Ukraine, by the evolving expectations of African publics, and by the response of the West and other global actors intensifying the competition for influence on the continent.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, and Multipolarity
Political Geography:: Africa and Russia

62. Relations of the Russian Federation with African States in Russian Strategic Documents – Political and Military Dimension

Author:: Krzysztof Żęgota
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The article examines the evolution of the Russian Federation’s relations with African states through the lens of Russian strategic documents and foreign policy practices. It argues that Russia’s contemporary engagement in Africa reflects the implementation of priorities defined in successive national security strategies since 1997. Moscow’s approach integrates political and military dimensions, aiming to restore great-power status, secure geopolitical footholds, and counter Western influence. Politically, Russia presents itself as an anti-colonial partner advocating multipolarity and sovereignty, while militarily it strengthens ties through arms trade, training, and the deployment of private military contractors. Case studies of Egypt, Mali, and the Central African Republic illustrate how Russia’s strategic narratives have been translated into concrete diplomatic and security partnerships. In conclusion, the article argues that Russia’s policy toward Africa represents both a continuation of Soviet-era ambitions and a pragmatic adaptation to the geopolitical realities of the twenty-first century. By selectively deploying limited resources and focusing on strategically significant states, Russia has managed to expand its influence on the African continent despite growing competition from other international actors.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, National Security, Politics, and Military Cooperation
Political Geography:: Africa and Russia

63. Institutional Quality and Economic Policy Strategies as Drivers of Competitiveness in African Economies

Author:: Oleksandra Werbowa
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: This study examines the determinants of national competitiveness in African economies, with a particular focus on the role of institutional quality and economic policy strategies. The analysis is based on cross-sectional data for 2024 covering fifteen African countries and includes governance, competitiveness, and socio-economic indicators such as the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), IMD Competitiveness Score, GDP per capita, Human Development Index (HDI), and inflation rate. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-means cluster analysis were applied to identify structural relationships and country groupings. The results reveal a strong positive association between institutional quality and economic competitiveness, indicating that countries with stronger governance frameworks tend to achieve higher competitiveness levels. The cluster analysis identified three distinct groups of countries with differing institutional and development profiles. Countries characterized by higher governance quality, lower corruption, and stronger socio-economic performance demonstrate significantly higher competitiveness, while countries with weaker institutional frameworks face greater structural constraints. These findings confirm that institutional quality is a key determinant of competitiveness and highlight the importance of context-specific policy strategies. Strengthening governance effectiveness, improving institutional capacity, and supporting socio-economic development are essential for enhancing competitiveness and promoting sustainable economic growth in African economies.
Topic:: Governance, Economy, Economic Policy, Institutions, Multidimensional Analysis, and Cluster Analysis
Political Geography:: Africa

64. Trends in Regional Minilateralism: the Case of the Horn of Africa

Author:: Olha Ivasechko, Teresa Astramowicz-Leyk, and Yaryna Turchyn
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The article examines the phenomenon of minilateralism in the context of the Horn of Africa, a region known for its complex geopolitical situation, numerous conflicts and challenges. The author highlights key minilateral initiatives in the region. Among them is the Tripartite Agreement between Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, which aims to strengthen regional security and cooperation. The Horn of Africa Initiative, which focuses on economic development and integration, is also considered. Special attention is paid to the role of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as an important platform for addressing regional challenges. The recent Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland is analyzed as an example of the latest minilateral agreements that can have a significant impact on the regional balance of power. The paper analyzes the main goals of these formations and their impact on regional security and development. Potential scenarios for the development of minilateralism in the Horn of Africa are considered. This includes the formation of competing blocs, the intensification of proxy conflicts, and the prospects for using minilateral initiatives to strengthen broader multilateral cooperation. The authors focus on exploring the key role of minilateralism in the Horn of Africa, analyzing its potential and challenges, and identifying possible ways to develop it in this critical region.
Topic:: Treaties and Agreements, Geopolitics, Regional Politics, and Minilateralism
Political Geography:: Africa, Ethiopia, Somaliland, and Horn of Africa

65. Energy Geopolitics of Africa: the Role of the Continent in the Global Energy Balance

Author:: Oleh Pekhnyk, Oleh Tsebenko, and Olha Ivasechko
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The article provides a comprehensive analysis of Africa’s energy geopolitics and its role in the global energy balance. The study covers the production, export and use of the continent’s main energy resources, including oil, natural gas and renewable energy sources. Particular attention is paid to the impact of geopolitical factors, international investment and economic policy on the energy sector of African countries. The article analyses the key challenges faced by the countries, including political instability, corruption, insufficient infrastructure and environmental threats that hinder the efficient use of energy resources. An important aspect of the study is an assessment of the role of major international players, such as China, the EU and the US, in the development of the African energy sector, as well as the prospects for Africa’s integration into global energy markets. The article analyses opportunities for expanding energy production and exports, renewable energy development, and potential scenarios for Africa’s future energy landscape in the context of the global energy transition. From a geopolitical perspective, Africa is playing an increasingly important role in the global energy balance due to its rich natural resources, growing investments in energy production and processing, and the development of renewable energy. The continent itself has significant potential in oil production, gas industry and solar energy, making it an important player in global energy geopolitics. The article analyses key trends, challenges and prospects for Africa in shaping global energy policy.
Topic:: Oil, Geopolitics, Renewable Energy, Energy, Energy Security, and Natural Gas
Political Geography:: Africa

66. Natural Resources of the Western Sahara Region as a Factor of International Conflicts

Author:: Bohdana Haiduk and Yuliya Lemko
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: The study places particular emphasis on the role of Western Sahara’s natural resources in international relations, with special attention given to the conflict associated with the occupation by the Kingdom of Morocco. The territory of Western Sahara contains a variety of natural resources, such as phosphates, fisheries, and minor reserves of oil and gas, which are important for the energy sector, among others. These resources have become a significant factor in geopolitical processes at both regional and international levels. The paper highlights the specific features of the legal regulation regarding the use of these resources within the territory. The research examines the impact of natural resources on the political process of legitimizing Morocco’s occupation of the territory and analyzes the main export directions of these resources. Furthermore, the study characterizes Western Sahara’s resources as instruments of foreign policy. The role of the United Nations in addressing the conflict is explored, alongside an analysis of the European Union’s position on the Western Sahara dispute. Finally, the paper evaluates the involvement of international actors in the conflict.
Topic:: International Relations, Natural Resources, Conflict, and Legitimization
Political Geography:: Africa, Morocco, and Western Sahara

67. The European Union – Africa Partnership

Author:: Waldemar Tomaszewski
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:: This article examines the current state of the EU’s partnership with African countries. It analyzes the state of political and economic cooperation, as well as cooperation in building civil society. The article’s structure encompasses the origins of EU-Africa relations, the main areas of cooperation, and the anticipated directions of their development. The research primarily utilizes institutional, legal, and systemic approaches. Historical methods are used to a lesser extent. The main goal is to determine the scale of EU assistance to African countries and the priority sectors of cooperation. The main hypothesis is: Africa’s importance in the international system is growing rapidly, which is why the European Union is redefining its partnership with Africa, recognizing the continent as an equal partner. This hypothesis was positively verified during the analysis. The article is based primarily on information contained in official documents of EU and African Union institutions. Furthermore, available literature relevant to the subject matter was utilized.
Topic:: International Relations, European Union, and Partnerships
Political Geography:: Africa and Europe

68. What’s New Is Old: The Enduring Challenge of Non-State Armed Actors in the Post-October 7 Landscape

Author:: Grace Wermenbol
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: While these groups may not have the resources or structure of traditional states, they play a major role in the continuation, or cessation, of conflict in the region.
Topic:: Non State Actors, Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and October 7
Political Geography:: Iraq, Middle East, Yemen, Palestine, and Lebanon

69. From Vietnam to Campus Encampments & Anti-Ice Protests: A Legal History of Federal Cases On Student First Amendment Rights

Author:: Jacob Blau
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: Students who have been silenced for their participation in recent protests should be aware of a deep legal history that has seen federal courts grapple with and protect the concept of student free speech.
Topic:: Protests, Free Speech, 2023 Gaza War, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States of America, Palestine, Vietnam, and North America

70. Minnesota’s Perfect ICE Storm

Author:: Zoe Carver
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: As Minneapolis once again becomes the center of national protests, a dive into the state’s recent history of racial tensions and police violence reveals just why the North Star City has come head-to-head with the executive branch.
Topic:: Protests, Police Brutality, Immigration Policy, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Political Geography:: North America, Minnesota, and United States of America

71. The Complexity of Mediating the Libyan Quagmire

Author:: Abdussalam Elbelazi
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: Mediators in Libya hoping to create a mechanism to establish an egalitarian and inclusive state often find themselves challenged by factional politics, foreign interventions, and a heritage of repressive authoritarianism.
Topic:: Authoritarianism, Domestic Politics, Repression, Mediation, and Foreign Interference
Political Geography:: Libya and North Africa

72. Sudan’s Water Crisis Worsened by War, But There is Hope

Author:: Lama Elhatow
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: As Sudan continues to face numerous obstacles, including a lack of multilateral governance for hydrological stability, water remains a potential entry point for cooperation domestically, regionally, and internationally.
Topic:: Climate Change, Water, Governance, Crisis Management, and Armed Conflict
Political Geography:: Africa and Sudan

73. The War in Sudan Is Fought Over the Bodies of Women

Author:: Tahani Abbas
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: Women should play more than symbolic roles in any peacemaking efforts in Sudan; they must be allowed genuine political participation to protect themselves and build a more inclusive country.
Topic:: Women, Armed Conflict, Inclusion, Political Participation, and Peacemaking
Political Geography:: Africa and Sudan

74. The Dynamics of War, Politics, and Peace in the Middle East

Author:: Paul Salem
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: The justifications, enactments, and conclusions of the various conflicts that arose in the aftermath of October 7 remain murky, but historical and modern theories of war light a path toward future stability.
Topic:: Political stability, Armed Conflict, Regional Politics, and October 7
Political Geography:: Middle East

75. Between Ambition and Abandonment: Lessons from Mediating the Syria Conflict

Author:: Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: The ruins of failed negotiations, committees, and conferences on the Syrian issue can offer guidance to future peacemakers.
Topic:: Syrian War, Negotiation, Mediation, Armed Conflict, and Peacemaking
Political Geography:: Middle East and Syria

76. Local Mediation in Southwestern Yemen Alleviates Life Under Siege

Author:: Maeen Al-Obaidi
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: For the residents of Taiz under one of the longest military blockades in history, life became a daily struggle of days-long journeys searching for food, water, and vital medical supplies. This is the story of one Yemeni woman whose name became synonymous with bringing the warring parties together.
Topic:: Mediation, Armed Conflict, Siege, and Blockade
Political Geography:: Middle East and Yemen

77. Reconciling a Fractured Sudan

Author:: Nureldin Satti
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: To address Sudan’s problems, the efforts of the Sudanese people and international mediators must be synchronized.
Topic:: Protests, Reconciliation, Mediation, and Armed Conflict
Political Geography:: Africa and Sudan

78. Housing Resilience Through Identity-Driven Design: The Case of Karabakh Reconstruction

Author:: Leyla Hasanova
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Resilient housing is often defined in practical terms: structural safety, reliable infrastructure, and the restoration of basic services. In post‑conflict and post‑return contexts, these factors are essential. However, experience shows that resilience is not achieved through construction alone; it is also influenced by whether people returning after long displacement can recognize their surroundings, trust them, and gradually feel at home again. Karabakh brings this challenge into sharp focus. The return of IDPs to Azerbaijan’s liberated areas is not merely a logistical process; it is also an emotional and social transition. Housing can be modern, efficient, and technically successful, yet still feel anonymous. When this happens, buildings stand—but everyday belonging takes much longer to return. The current reconstruction in Karabakh is guided by officially approved urban and master plans for cities such as Aghdam and Aghdara, which envision large‑scale redevelopment through 2040. The Master Plan for Aghdam, adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2022, outlines transforming the city into a sustainable regional hub with integrated infrastructure, planned residential neighborhoods, social facilities, economic zones, and inter‑urban transport links to support return and long‑term growth. Similarly, the Master Plan for Aghdara sets out expanded residential sectors, parks and public spaces, industrial and logistics areas, and the necessary social infrastructure, aligning with broader reconstruction strategies for multiple liberated cities. These master plans are published and consolidated by the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan (SCUPA). On the committee’s official urban‑planning portal, master plans and sectoral frameworks are made publicly accessible, including map‑based spatial regulations and planning diagrams that outline axes of movement, the hierarchy of public spaces, and zoning allocations for land use. The portal also provides planning norms, public‑space standards, and guidelines on urban morphological structuring that local administrations use to coordinate investment and construction activities across both the public and private sectors. While such frameworks are essential for reconstructing cities on a large scale—addressing land use, density, infrastructure, public sector facilities, and environmental regulation—they mainly function at the macro level of spatial planning and investment strategies. Concerning everyday spatial experience and human‑scale understanding, they offer limited guidance on how to incorporate cultural familiarity into newly designed environments. Formal master plans provide overarching roadmaps and zoning guidelines, but they often lack a clear design language or operational tools for shaping streets, squares, facades, materials, or visual cues that reflect local cultural identity. It is within this gap between macro‑scale planning and lived spatial experience that this essay positions its argument. I contend in these pages that identity‑driven design—understood as design that responds to culture rather than applying universal models—should be seen not as a stylistic or symbolic addition but as a practical component of housing resilience. Framed through an environmental‑design perspective, my argument emphasizes how urban design, architecture, and everyday objects collectively shape how people recognize, inhabit, navigate, and ultimately care for their reconstructed environments.
Topic:: Reconstruction, Resilience, Housing, and Identity
Political Geography:: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh

79. Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities Among Repatriated People

Author:: Lala Jumayeva, Fidan Namazova, and Anar Valiyev
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: The conflict over Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a territorial dispute that began during the late Russian Empire period, ebbed and flowed throughout the Soviet era before escalating in the late 1980s. This escalation led to the large‑scale forced displacement of the ethnic‑Azerbaijani populations in both Armenia and what was then known as the Nagorno‑Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan, as well as surrounding areas now collectively called East Zangezur. Official data collected shortly after the end of the First Karabakh War in 1994 showed 209,000 refugees and 576,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), roughly 10 percent of Azerbaijan’s population at that time. In this article, we focus on IDPs, many of whom have endured nearly 30 years of displacement, often living in overcrowded public buildings and makeshift settlements with limited access to basic services and poor living conditions. This prolonged instability affected not only their socioeconomic circumstances, but also the development of community life during displacement. Over time, the absence of stable homes, reliable institutions, and long‑term development plans has restricted opportunities to build sustainable community practices among IDPs. After hostilities ended the Second Karabakh War in November 2020 and following the September 2023 counter‑terrorism operation, Azerbaijan regained full control of its previously occupied territories and launched the Great Return program, a government‑led effort to help ethnic‑Azerbaijani IDPs return to the liberated areas. While rebuilding infrastructure is a key part of this program, the long‑term success of return and reintegration equally depends on building sustainable communities that promote social cohesion, livelihoods, and institutional stability. In this context, the idea that returning populations can easily develop sustainable community practices raises an important question: How have decades of displacement affected IDPs’ ability to build sustainable communities in postconflict Karabakh? We examine answers to that question in this article by looking at the experiences of IDP communities in Baku and other regions of Azerbaijan over nearly 30 years. We explore why sustainable community practices did not develop during long‑term displacement and identify the barriers that prevented IDPs from establishing socially cohesive, economically viable, and institutionally supported communities in their places of displacement. Our findings show that such practices were largely absent among IDPs, a pattern that cannot be explained solely by community‑level factors.
Topic:: Territorial Disputes, Infrastructure, Social Cohesion, Armed Conflict, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
Political Geography:: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh

80. Affordable Housing in Baku: Proposals for Sustainable Urban Living

Author:: Carl Haddrell and Aysel Karimli
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: The current housing problem in Baku did not begin with the post‑Soviet real‑estate boom. Its roots reach back to the late Russian imperial period, when the first oil boom transformed Baku from a small‑town port into one of the empire’s fastest‑growing industrial cities. Wealth generated by oil produced a sharply uneven urban landscape: elite mansions, administrative buildings, and prestigious apartment houses rose in the central city, while the influx of workers from other parts of Azerbaijan, the empire, and surrounding states produced intense pressure for cheaper accommodation near the oil fields and industrial districts. Baku’s modern housing question, therefore, emerged at the same time as its modern prosperity. Under Soviet rule, this earlier imbalance was not eliminated so much as reorganized. From the 1920s onward, Baku became the site of repeated planning experiments, including worker settlements around the industrial periphery, new general plans for the city and the Absheron Peninsula, and later the mass construction of standardized apartment blocks. These interventions expanded access to housing and built the foundations of the residential city that still exists today. Yet they also embedded a different set of long‑term problems: heavy reliance on standard typologies, weak maintenance cultures, and a tendency to subordinate housing quality to industrial and demographic urgency. By the late Soviet period, the city had acquired large microdistricts and extensive prefabricated housing, but much of this stock was already beginning to age mechanically and spatially. The legacy is therefore double. Baku inherited from the imperial era a housing market shaped by uneven access and speculative pressure; from the Soviet era, it inherited a vast but increasingly fragile stock whose technical life and social logic were never meant to carry the full weight of a twenty‑first‑century metropolis. Despite considerable and commendable efforts by the Azerbaijani government and the city authorities, Baku is currently facing the prospect of a housing crisis marked by severe affordability constraints and significant deterioration of its pre‑1990 housing stock, which may, if not successfully addressed, lead to growing socioeconomic inequality. Housing prices substantially exceed median household income levels, and the opportunity to secure a mortgage and take the first steps toward property ownership remains a significant challenge for many. At the same time, nearly half of the city’s residential buildings face long‑term structural risk due to decades of deferred maintenance. As a result, housing in Baku functions not only as a sectoral challenge but as a systemic driver of social disparity and fiscal strain. Drawing on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 framework (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”), this paper proposes an integrated reform agenda for Baku focused on affordability measures, large‑scale structural rehabilitation, institutional reform, and the modernization of housing data systems. Without coordinated intervention, Baku risks intergenerational inequality and accelerating infrastructure decline; however, targeted reforms could position the housing sector as a foundation for sustainable, resilient urban development.
Topic:: Urbanization, Sustainability, Post-Soviet Space, and Affordable Housing
Political Geography:: Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Baku

81. Cities for Living: Identity at Eye Level in Azerbaijan’s Urban Transformation

Author:: Emir Huseynov
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Azerbaijan’s cities are changing at a pace that has few precedents in the country’s modern history. Today, approximately 57 percent of the national population lives in urban areas, with Baku accounting for nearly one quarter of the country’s inhabitants. Annual residential construction has more than doubled over the past decade, rising from approximately 1.6 million square meters in 2010 to nearly 3 million square meters by 2023. The State Agency for Housing Construction has delivered thousands of units under social housing programs, and reconstruction in the liberated areas of Karabakh and East Zangezur is producing entirely new settlements—among them those parts of Shusha that had been disfigured during the Soviet and Armenian occupation periods, where 389 hectares are being reorganized around heritage and community structure, and Aghdam, where a city for 100,000 residents is being planned from the ground up after having been systematically devastated during the occupation period. By any quantitative measure, urban transformation in Azerbaijan is sustained, organized, and accelerating. Yet the scale of what has been built does not by itself answer the deeper question of how it is lived. Decades of Soviet urbanism systematically subordinated local identity—the neighborhood, the street, the courtyard—to a standardized built environment designed to replace rather than reinforce community roots. The post‑Soviet transition that followed, necessarily focused on economic stabilization and market construction, left this dimension largely unaddressed. Azerbaijan’s Socio‑Economic Development Strategy for 2022‑2026 places strong emphasis on improving quality of life, expanding access to services, and achieving more balanced regional development. The strategy prioritizes the diversification of economic activity beyond Baku, investment in regional infrastructure, and the strengthening of social services across the country. Taken together, these priorities implicitly point to uneven conditions in how urban environments are experienced, where differences in accessibility, public space quality, and local infrastructure continue to shape everyday life across regions. Here, is can be noted that in its 2025 Country Strategy for Azerbaijan, the EBRD indicted that livability and domestic connectivity outside Baku remain underdeveloped. Growth has been organized. Its translation into environments where communities recognize themselves is less certain. This article examines Azerbaijan’s cities from the perspective of identity experienced at eye level—through housing streets in microdistricts, shared spaces in new residential clusters, and the daily rhythms of neighborhood life. It argues that the country’s next urban challenge is increasingly qualitative rather than purely quantitative: not only how much to build, but how urban environments perform over time. Drawing on housing patterns, planning frameworks, reconstruction strategies, and emerging examples of community‑centered renewal across the country, the article examines what urban policy should now address to ensure that Azerbaijan’s cities remain places to live as well as to develop.
Topic:: Development, Urbanization, and Cities
Political Geography:: Caucasus and Azerbaijan

82. Why Baku Needs to Adjust to a Global Polarized Reality

Author:: Jahangir E. Arasli
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: In the 35 years since the restoration of its national independence, Azerbaijan performed a spectacular ascending trajectory. Having overcome early troubles, the country restored its full territorial integrity and sovereignty, accelerated its pace of development, and firmly entrenched itself as a “keystone state” that commands international respect and credibility. All this was not the case at first. Armenia’s full‑scale military invasion of Azerbaijan that began in the late 1980s, and the subsequent occupation of a significant share of national territory, overshadowed the initial stages of Azerbaijan’s independence, projecting insecurity, hindering domestic development, and consuming efforts, treasure, and blood. Certainly, the liberation of the occupied territories emerged as the ultimate national goal and remained so for nearly three decades. Eventually, in 2020‑2023, Azerbaijan accomplished this mission through the application of all tools of national power (military, diplomatic, and economic). However, the accomplishment of that principal mission does not mean that the state can afford to be complacent. The system of threats, risks, and challenges to national security evolves continuously and rapidly in all parts of its spectrum, ranging from geopolitics to technology. The global system has entered into а profound and turbulent period of transformation. These changes include (but are not limited to) the relative decline of status quo powers and the rise of new assertive ones, shifts in international alignments and multipolarization, mounting strategic competition and hastening alliance‑building, durable conflicts and the erosion of respect for international law, and the growing impact of novel and potentially disruptive technologies. A fragmented constellation of competitive and issue‑based state groupings now supersedes the largely unipolar post‑Cold War global architecture. A stronger emphasis on hard power, transactionalism, the weaponization of the world economy and trade, the pursuit of control over resources and logistical routes, and the mounting factor of artificial intelligence are defining and driving geopolitics and international relations. These long‑term trends will shape security dynamics worldwide in the second half of this and, at a minimum, the entirety of the next decade. As the existing global order reaches its inflection point, generating greater chaos and risk, Azerbaijan must adapt its strategic behavior to the emergent post‑”rules‑based liberal international order” era of strategic transactionalism and the return of the utility of force. Therefore, this Baku Dialogues article seeks to conceptualize and frame Azerbaijan’s strategic posture within the evolving global and regional security environment and to assess its potential future trajectories.
Topic:: Territorial Disputes, Polarization, Regional Politics, and Regional Security
Political Geography:: Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Baku, and Nagorno-Karabakh

83. The Concept of Inclusive Neighborhoods: Lessons from Vienna’s Mixed Housing Types

Author:: Silja Tillner
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: A historical overview of the development of the Viennese housing system provides the framework for understanding its current favorable situation, which draws many international experts eager to learn from the Vienna model. Since 1917, the Viennese housing model has evolved, with its core principles established in 1922. Even during times of financial difficulty, successive city governments resisted selling property and protected their municipal landholdings. Today, this gives the City of Vienna a significant advantage over other European cities that began selling municipal properties in the 1980s. The Viennese housing system was developed with the help of renowned architects, urban planners, and sociologists. They focused not only on designing functional and aesthetically pleasing individual buildings, but also on establishing neighborhoods with social, cultural, and technical infrastructure. This is an early version of today’s 15‑minute city concept, which advocates providing essential services within a 15‑minute walk. In the early twentieth century, the city had already envisioned establishing mixed districts with socially integrated communities by using land provision and zoning to ensure the fair distribution of social housing across the entire city. Today, the residents of Vienna benefit from the continuous stewardship and administration of Europe’s largest property manager, which is responsible for 1,800 housing complexes, 220,000 individual flats, and 5,500 business premises. In 2020, Vienna’s municipal housing celebrated its one hundredth anniversary whilst remaining true to its mission of providing affordable, high‑quality dwellings in mixed communities across the entire city for the majority of its population.
Topic:: Development, Cities, Housing, Inclusion, and Municipalities
Political Geography:: Europe, Austria, and Vienna

84. Housing at the Center: Rebuilding the Social Contract for Cities in a Fragmented World

Author:: Anacláudi Rossbach
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: As the world turns its attention to Baku in anticipation of the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WEF13), a profound realization is taking hold across governments, institutions, and communities: the future of cities will be determined not only by how they grow, but by how they house their people. Across continents and contexts, housing has emerged as the defining challenge of our urban age. It sits at the intersection of inequality, climate change, economic instability, and social fragmentation. And yet, for decades, it has too often been treated as a sectoral issue—something to be addressed through discrete policies, market adjustments, or targeted programs. It is increasingly clear and consistently emphasized by UN‑Habitat that housing must be understood not as a standalone domain, but as the foundation of the entire urban system. The scale of the challenge is staggering. Over 2.8 billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing conditions. Hundreds of millions experience homelessness, often in forms that remain invisible in official statistics—people living in temporary shelters, overcrowded spaces, or precarious arrangements that offer little security or dignity. More than 1 billion people reside in informal settlements or slums, where access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and electricity is uncertain, and where tenure insecurity leaves communities vulnerable to eviction and displacement. In short, the housing crisis affects nearly 40 percent of the global population.
Topic:: Development, Inequality, Cities, and Housing
Political Geography:: Global Focus

85. Caspian Sea Water Level Decline: Drivers, Consequences, and Impacts on Littoral States

Author:: Vali Kaleji
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Fluctuations in the water level of the Caspian Sea and the shoreline’s retreat are not new phenomena; they have happened repeatedly throughout the sea’s long history. My hometown is in Mazandaran Province on the southern coast of the Caspian in Iran, and I personally observed a significant rise in water levels after the Soviet Union’s implosion, during which many houses and coastal facilities were submerged. About thirty years later, I saw a notable retreat of the Caspian from its shores again. What is especially notable, however, is that the current rate of shoreline retreat—caused by a decline in the sea’s water level—is much greater than during previous historical periods. Scientific reports and empirical studies further support these observations. The average water level of the Caspian Sea has fluctuated over the past century, but has generally remained between 26 and 27 meters below the Baltic Sea level. According to the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea (signed in Aktau at the presidential level in August 2018), the sea level was officially set at ‑28 meters, meaning 28 meters below the level of the world’s oceans and open seas, using the Baltic Sea as the reference point for measuring fluctuations in the Caspian Sea. Specialists at the Volga–Caspian Fisheries Research Institute have reported that the Caspian Sea’s water level has dropped to more than 29 meters below the Baltic Sea (‑29 m), which serves as the standard reference system in Russia and several post‑Soviet states for measuring water levels in landlocked bodies of water.
Topic:: Environment, Natural Resources, and Water
Political Geography:: Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Caspian Sea

86. Beyond Housing Provision for Baku: A Strategic Roadmap for Climate-Resilient Neighborhoods and Human Development

Author:: Deniz Ozge Aytac
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Baku’s rapid urbanization is heightening pressure on housing, infrastructure, public services, and environmental systems. Recent reports point to a more complex urban condition shaped by affordability constraints, spatial mismatches, aging building stock, uneven neighborhood services, increased heat exposure, and declining ecological quality. Some of the effects of climate change worsen these issues, making it more urgent to adopt a policy approach that integrates the spatial, social, and environmental aspects of urban development. I argue in this article that urban policy in Baku should move beyond a narrow housing‑provision approach and adopt a climate‑resilient neighborhood concept as the primary unit of intervention. This is consistent with Azerbaijan’s broader development agenda, including Azerbaijan 2030, the Strategic Roadmap for Affordable Housing, the Baku Initiative on Human Development for Climate Resilience, and the ongoing efforts of UN‑Habitat and national institutions to make cities and communities more climate‑resilient. Taken together, these frameworks suggest that resilience should be understood not only in terms of infrastructure performance or emissions reduction, but as the capacity of people and places to sustain healthy, inclusive, safe, and adaptive urban life under changing socioeconomic and environmental conditions.
Topic:: Climate Change, Development, Urbanization, and Resilience
Political Geography:: Azerbaijan and Baku

87. Urban Redevelopment and Heritage from Below: Towards a Socially Inclusive Urban Policy

Author:: Bairam Akhundov and Leyla Sayfutdinova
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Baku’s ultramodern skyline, marked by iconic architectural landmarks, has gained global recognition in recent decades. This transformation required significant investment not only in building new structures but also in beautifying and redeveloping urban spaces. While some of these projects took place in former industrial areas and public spaces, such as Baku White City and the expanded Seaside Park, others involved the redevelopment of existing residential neighborhoods. The transformation of former industrial brownfields did not cause many concerns, but the redevelopment of residential areas often met with resentment, contestation, and, at times, resistance. Displacement and conflicting views over heritage have frequently been key issues in these discussions. While the redevelopment and upgrading of dilapidated housing stock are necessary, such contestation can lead to social polarization and cleavage, and, if unaddressed, could produce fertile ground for social discontent. Against the backdrop of the ongoing transformation of the Bayir Shahar neighborhood in Baku, this article examines divergent views on heritage and urban redevelopment and argues for a more inclusive process of urban change.
Topic:: Development, Urbanization, Heritage, and Social Inclusion
Political Geography:: Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Baku

88. The Role of the Middle Corridor in Eurasian Connectivity

Author:: Melina Torús
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: That part of the world that is still commonly referred to as “Eurasia” is characterized by its vast continental landmass, great diversity of natural and strategic resources, varied geography, and significant proportion of the global population. These features make it a prosperous area for trade and logistics. Large industrial centers and urban logistics hubs connect national, regional, and global markets. The Eurasian neighborhood is also home to major global and regional powers, including China, Russia, Iran, the European Union, and Türkiye, all of which have significant economic influence. In this context, connectivity has become a strategic resource and a foreign policy instrument. Multimodal corridors, which integrate various modes of transport such as rail, road and sea, are much more than mere transit routes. Growing competition between major powers and the vulnerability of supply chains have also marked a transition in international order, highlighting the importance of Eurasian corridors and alternative routes for global trade. Participation in and control of transport corridors can therefore become instruments of national power and influence. Historically, the Eurasian region has been connected by trade routes such as the Silk Road. However, these were nothing like the integrated transport corridors seen today. In addition to technological advances in transport, there is a greater degree of institutionalization today, which in turn strengthens cooperation between states. Faced with the challenge of connecting the vast Eurasian landmass, multiple corridors have emerged over time, each offering different geopolitical advantages, challenges and vulnerabilities. Initiatives such as the Northern Corridor, the International North‑South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Transport Corridor Europe‑Caucasus‑Asia (TRACECA), and the Middle Corridor are emerging in the region in response to the growing need for resilient and reliable supply chains and alternative trade routes in a context of international geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, the Middle Corridor is establishing itself as a viable alternative for trade between Asia and Europe. It offers multimodal transport options, diversifying routes and reducing reliance on corridors that are more vulnerable to geopolitical tensions. Since its launch in 2013, the Middle Corridor has established itself as a vital multimodal route connecting China and Central Asia with the Caucasus and Europe. It integrates road, rail, port, and digital infrastructure. As well as facilitating intercontinental trade, this corridor enables countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan to establish themselves as strategic logistics hubs and expand their influence in regional trade flows. Since its inception, progress has been made in legal harmonization, infrastructure modernization—especially to reduce bottlenecks—and the digitalization of processes along the corridor. In 2025, for example, the focus was on railway modernization, customs digitalization, and port expansion, reflecting a joint effort by intra‑ and extra‑regional actors to strengthen the corridor’s efficiency and resilience. These advances are taking place amid increased interest in the Middle Corridor, accentuated by geopolitical tensions in neighboring theaters, as reflected by the increased volume of cargo transported. To this end, regional cooperation is essential to ensure that this route is more resilient, reliable and attractive for international trade. This paper examines the role of the Middle Corridor in the context of supply chain reconfiguration and the key interests of those involved, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, the European Union, the United States, and China. The article is organized into five main sections. It begins by defining multimodal corridors and examining the importance of hard and soft infrastructure, as well as connectivity as a foreign policy tool. Then it analyses Eurasian corridors, identifying the chief land and multimodal routes, their history, and the associated advantages and challenges. Examples include the Northern Corridor, TRACECA, and the INSTC. Special emphasis is placed on the Middle Corridor, describing recent developments, infrastructure investments, and technological and operational advances that consolidate its operation. Moreover, the article addresses the interests of the involved parties, distinguishing between transit countries, users, and extra‑regional actors. It focuses particularly on China, the European Union, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and the United States, and includes initiatives such as the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) in the South Caucasus. Finally, it concludes by , emphasizing the advantages that corridors offer for economic integration, regional cooperation, and diversifying trade routes. It also highlights the opportunities that corridors provide for intra‑ and extra‑regional actors within the Eurasian geopolitical context.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, Regional Integration, Transportation, and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:: Eurasia

89. Slipping Out of ‘Old Geopolitics’ Through TRIPP

Author:: Vasif Huseynov
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: For much of the post‑Cold War period, the South Caucasus was shaped by a distinct geopolitical logic in which unresolved conflicts functioned as instruments of external influence, connectivity was constrained, and stability was underpinned by interim security mechanisms and contested political arrangements, not by durable peace agreements. This old geopolitics did not seek resolution; it sought control. Frozen or semi‑frozen conflicts allowed external actors—above all Russia—to arbitrate outcomes, limit regional autonomy, and preserve leverage by keeping borders politically charged and economically inert. Order was produced not through integration or enforcement, but through managed ambiguity. The erosion of the old geopolitical order did not occur suddenly, nor has it unfolded uniformly across the region. It began in earnest in 2020, when Azerbaijan fundamentally altered the regional balance of power by liberating its internationally recognized territories that had been under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades. For the first time since the early 1990s, one of the central pillars of the South Caucasus’s old geopolitical order—territorial conflicts sustained by external oversight—was dismantled through local agency rather than external arbitration. This shift deepened in September 2023, when Azerbaijan brought an end to the Russia‑backed separatist entity in Karabakh, eliminating the last institutional remnant of the unresolved‑conflict paradigm in Armenia‑Azerbaijan relations. The withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh in May 2024 confirmed the strategic significance of this moment. This marked a turning point not only in the Armenia‑Azerbaijan conflict but in the wider regional balance of influence. Old geopolitics, however, has not disappeared entirely from the South Caucasus. The Georgia‑Russia conflict remains governed by old rules (i.e., military occupation, external veto power, and frozen political arrangements) and stands as one of the last strongholds of the former order in the region. It is against this backdrop that the qualitatively new character of the normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be understood. Freed from the constraints of frozen conflict management, the two states have increasingly prioritized peacebuilding, connectivity, and economic cooperation. This transformation reached a further milestone at the August 2025 White House summit of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, when the two countries reached an agreement on one of the most contested issues of the post‑war period: the Zangezur Corridor, a transport route intended to connect mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through Armenia’s Syunik region. The corridor’s establishment was formalized under the framework of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), with the United States assuming a direct role in its infrastructural arrangements. By embedding regional connectivity within a U.S.‑backed infrastructural framework, the TRIPP agreement effectively shifted the role of external guarantor along the corridor through Armenian territory from Russia to the United States. The reactions of Russia and Iran to the TRIPP agreement demonstrated that the South Caucasus is not entering a post‑geopolitical era. However, developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan, together with the altered geopolitical context, indicate that the region is steadily, though slowly, moving away from the older order. The most consequential conflict in the region has been resolved, and the post‑war normalization process is increasingly managed through infrastructure, legal frameworks, and reciprocal commitments that reshape incentives on the ground. While old geopolitics persists in one part of the region (e.g., the Russia‑Georgia conflict), it no longer defines the dominant trajectory of regional order.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Normalization, and Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)
Political Geography:: Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, South Caucasus, United States of America, and Nagorno-Karabakh

90. From Karabakh to Connectivity: The Zangezur Concept and the Remaking of Power in the South Caucasus

Author:: Onur İşçi
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: In recent years, few words have acquired as much political weight in the South Caucasus as “corridor.” Once a largely technical term associated with infrastructure planning and trade routes, it has become shorthand for far broader debates about power, sovereignty, and regional order. Among these stands out the proposed Zangezur Corridor—with discourse now increasingly centered on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)—not because it is unprecedented, but because of what it represents in a rapidly transforming geopolitical environment. At first glance, the idea appears straightforward: a transport link connecting mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave through the southern Armenia region of Syunik (the Azerbaijani term for this region is Zangezur, hence the moniker), thereby creating a more direct land route between Azerbaijan and Türkiye (in contradistinction to two more circuitous ones, south via Iran and north via Georgia). Framed narrowly, this is a question of logistics, transit fees, customs arrangements, and infrastructure security. Framed correctly, however, the Zangezur concept is something else entirely. It is a test case for how connectivity reshapes power relations in the post‑Soviet space—and for whether the South Caucasus can move from a history of frozen conflicts toward a model of managed competition and pragmatic cooperation. The Zangezur concept is a test case for how connectivity reshapes power relations in the Silk Road region and for whether the South Caucasus can move toward a model of managed competition and pragmatic cooperation. The renewed focus on the Zangezur Corridor is inseparable from the post‑2020 regional landscape. The Second Karabakh War did not merely alter borders or military balances; it disrupted longstanding assumptions about immobility in the South Caucasus. For decades, the region had been defined by closed borders, interrupted transport routes, and unresolved disputes treated as permanent fixtures rather than temporary conditions. The Second Karabakh War—and the diplomatic processes that followed—forced all regional actors to confront a new reality: connectivity was no longer optional, and isolation was no longer sustainable. Yet it would be a mistake to view the Zangezur Corridor debate simply as a linear outcome of the end of the territorial conflict over Karabakh and the resulting Armenia‑Azerbaijan peace process. The corridor has gained prominence because it sits at the intersection of several overlapping trends. One is the growing centrality of geoeconomics in regional politics, where access, transit, and logistics increasingly matter as much as formal alliances. Another is the gradual redefinition of sovereignty in a world where states seek not absolute control, but strategic autonomy—the ability to make choices without excessive dependence on any single external power. Seen through this lens, the Zangezur Corridor issue is less about shortening distances than about recalibrating relationships. For Azerbaijan, it promises to consolidate territorial connectivity while reinforcing its role as an indispensable regional hub linking the Caspian basin to Anatolia and beyond. For Türkiye, it offers a tangible extension of its long‑articulated vision of deeper engagement with the South Caucasus and Central Asia—one grounded not in ideology, but in infrastructure and interdependence. Together, these dynamics elevate the Türkiye‑Azerbaijan relationship from a close bilateral partnership into a regional structuring force.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Trade, Connectivity, and Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)
Political Geography:: Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Caucasus, and Nagorno-Karabakh

91. Divergent Paths in the South Caucasus: Strategy, Survival, Retreat

Author:: Laura Linderman
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: When President Donald Trump welcomed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the White House in August 2025, the ceremony celebrated more than just the hope that decades of conflict between the two neighboring states might finally be coming to an end. The agreement initialed that day, which grants the United States long‑term development rights to a transit corridor ambitiously named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), marked a watershed moment in the geopolitics of the South Caucasus. For the first time in modern history, a major peace process in the region had bypassed Moscow entirely in favor of Western mediation. Yet the TRIPP agreement’s deeper significance lies not in American diplomatic triumph, but in what it reveals about a regional transformation—and the limits of that transformation. Russia’s war in Ukraine has created a window of opportunity for the South Caucasus, a moment when Moscow’s strategic distraction has given regional states unprecedented room to maneuver. The question is not whether this window exists, it clearly does, but how long it will remain open, and which states have the capacity to exploit it before it closes. The answers vary dramatically. The South Caucasus has moved from what Zbigniew Brzezinski famously called the “grand chessboard,” where great powers moved regional states as pawns, to what Svante E. Cornell and Damjan Krnjević Mišković describe in the introduction to their edited volume, titled After Karabakh: War, Peace, and the forging of a New Caucasus (2025), as a “card table,” where each state holds its own sovereign hand of playing cards. But not all hands are equal. Azerbaijan sits at the card table with a strong hand, leveraging energy resources, geographic indispensability, and military victory to extract value from multiple powers simultaneously. Armenia plays a weak hand the best it can under the circumstances, having initiated much of the TRIPP process to escape isolation and avoid being further diminished by Azerbaijan; a survival strategy, but a strategy nonetheless. And one could say that it looks as if Georgia has lit its best cards on fire or eaten them, with its government seemingly choosing preservation over strategic opportunity. The scene at the metaphorical card table after the most recent hand has been dealt is not, as some Western commentators have assumed, a straightforward regional pivot away from Russia toward the West. Nor is it the emergence of a coherent new form of sovereignty. It is something messier: three states responding to the same geopolitical shock with radically different resources, constraints, and choices. The West has increasingly set aside the post‑Cold War vision of liberal internationalism, with its emphasis on open markets, multilateral institutions, and shared sovereignty, in favor of a more transactional approach to statecraft. States the world over, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, are adapting to this reality, but adaptation looks very different depending on whether you’re negotiating from strength or desperation.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Geopolitics, International Order, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and South Caucasus

92. The Corridor Changing Eurasia: Connectivity, Sovereignty, and the Strategic Awakening of the Trans-Caspian Region

Author:: Eric Rudenshiold
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: Since (re‑)gaining independence from the Soviet Union, the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been perceived by and large as flyover states of marginal interest. They were framed in geopolitical dialogue as peripheries or regions whose importance largely derived from adjacency rather than agency—from whom they bordered rather than what roles they could play. Especially in Western policy discourse, they were generally described as buffers or backyards, almost never as strategic actors in their own right. That framing is grossly outdated. Over the past four years or so, what has been unfolding in Central Asia and the South Caucasus is not simply a shift in trade routing or a reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Instead, it is a deep structural reordering of Eurasia’s political economy that is in parts driven by generational change, unfettered economic ambition, and recalibrations of sovereignty. At the center of this transformation is the Middle Corridor, stretching from Central Asia across the Caspian and through the South Caucasus to Türkiye and Europe. Once a peripheral notion, it is now central to the entire region’s growth. No longer aspirational, the Middle Corridor has become a strategic instrument that binds roads, rails, ports, and policy into a single, multimodal system—one that extends beyond transportation to questions of power, choice, and sovereignty. The resulting whole is proving greater than the sum of its parts. The catalyst for this shift was crisis. When Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time in 2022, the resulting international sanctions regime effectively closed Central Asia’s licit access to the northern transport corridor that transits Russian territory. The resulting disruption derailed most of the region’s trade and exposed long‑tolerated structural vulnerabilities and dependence on Soviet‑era infrastructure still zealously controlled by Moscow. The shock and resulting transport vacuum forced Central Asian leaders to do three things. One, to make tectonic decisions that reoriented commercial and geopolitical linkages; two, to engage more pliable diplomatic postures; and three, to accelerate alternatives that had previously advanced only incrementally.
Topic:: Sovereignty, Infrastructure, Sanctions, and Connectivity
Political Geography:: Central Asia, Eurasia, and South Caucasus

93. From Conflict Zones to Supply Chain Zones: Critical Raw Materials and the Reconfiguration of Global Power

Author:: Han Ilhan
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: The international system is entering a period of heightened fragmentation and strategic realignment. Economic security, supply chain resilience, and industrial competitiveness are increasingly central to national strategy. Within this evolving landscape, critical raw materials (CRMs) have moved from the margins of industrial policy to the center of geopolitical and geo‑economic planning. CRMs are foundational not only to the energy “transition,” but also to advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, aerospace systems, and defense technologies. Their strategic relevance derives from both their functional indispensability and the concentration of processing capacity within a limited number of jurisdictions. In several key mineral value chains, supply exposure remains highly concentrated, resulting in vulnerabilities for advanced economies whose industrial bases depend on secure and predictable access. As a result, diversification of supply has become a policy priority across multiple demand‑side economies. Yet the implications of CRMs extend beyond industrial competitiveness. The geography of CRM production and processing intersects with regions historically shaped by political tension, limited economic integration, and uneven development. As global supply chains are reconfigured, CRMs have the potential either to reinforce geopolitical rivalry or to anchor new forms of economic interdependence. Whether CRMs become instruments of intensified competition or foundations of structural stability will depend not only on resource endowment, but on the architecture of cooperation between supply‑side and demand‑side economies. The defining question is therefore not simply who controls resources, but how capital, technology, and long‑term strategy are aligned around them. Understanding the evolving global CRMs landscape requires examining both the policy responses of advanced economies and the institutional models that have shaped the current concentration of supply.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Supply Chains, International System, Raw Materials, and Energy Transition
Political Geography:: Global Focus

94. Environmental and Conflict Displacement: Pathways to Sustainable Peace in East Asia and Incheon

Author:: Yonbeen Cho
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: East Asia faces simultaneous pressures from environmental degradation and conflict-driven displacement, both of which have become defining challenges for long-term regional stability. Rising sea levels, intensifying typhoons, and floods are contributing to the rapid growth of environmentally displaced populations, while unresolved geopolitical tensions continue to drive conflict-induced migration. Incheon, a coastal city mainly built on reclaimed tidal flats, exemplifies both the risks associated with climate change and the potential for leadership in regional resilience policy. This study analyzes the structural and human security implications of displacement in East Asia and argues that integrated governance, climate adaptation, and inclusive peacebuilding strategies are essential to mitigating humanitarian risks. By examining theoretical frameworks, regional case studies, and Incheon’s institutional capacity, this paper identifies recommendations to enhance long-term resilience and contribute to sustainable peace.
Topic:: Climate Change, Environment, Displacement, Human Security, Resilience, Armed Conflict, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:: Asia and Incheon

95. Invisible Diaspora Among Koryo-saram Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

Author:: Hayoung Hwang
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: This paper explores the shifting paradigm of security in the era of globalization, emphasizing the limitations of traditional state-centric models in addressing the needs of marginalized diaspora communities. Focusing on Korean Third Culture Kids (TCKs), particularly the Koryosaram in post-Soviet regions, it examines how double marginalization, unstable cultural identity, and a lack of institutional support shape their human, cultural, and community security experiences. By analyzing existing studies and policy frameworks, the study highlights the insufficient recognition and protection of these groups within Korea’s diaspora policy. The paper argues for an expanded understanding of security that encompasses identity, cultural cohesion, and community belonging for diaspora youth, presenting recommendations for more inclusive policy measures to strengthen the security and integration of TCKs as vital contributors to Korea’s global network.
Topic:: Migration, Diaspora, Culture, Human Security, Identity, Third Culture Kids, and Social Belonging
Political Geography:: Korea and Global Focus

96. Foreword: Rising Voices for Peace and Security: Reflections on the Next Generation of Changemakers

Author:: Roland B. Wilson
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The papers in this issue reflect the remarkable potential of a new generation of student-scholars whose voices increasingly signal a shift in how peace and security may be imagined on the Korean Peninsula and across East Asia. Mentoring undergraduate volunteers who prepared original research for the 2025 Incheon International Peace and Security Forum revealed a depth of curiosity, courage, and analytical maturity that challenges prevailing assumptions about today’s youth. While public discourse often characterizes younger cohorts as digitally absorbed, civically detached, or emotionally strained, with evidence of declining motivation, rising unemployment, and worsening mental-health indicators across many societies, the broader picture is far more complex. Even amid heightened anxiety and institutional mistrust, many Gen Z and Millennial students are demonstrating a renewed commitment to purpose, valuesdriven action, and prosocial engagement. International polling and global initiatives, including Youth2030, continue to document thousands of youth-led efforts advancing the public good, from climate resilience and cybersecurity to peacebuilding and community service.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Politics, Diaspora, Geopolitics, Polarization, and Middle Powers
Political Geography:: Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

97. Between Giants: Strategic Autonomy for East Asia’s Middle Powers in the U.S.–China Rivalry

Author:: Yoochan Kong
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The intensifying rivalry between the United States and China places South Korea in a delicate strategic position where great-power competition pushes Seoul to choose sides. However, the concept of strategic autonomy shows that middle powers can still navigate a narrow but meaningful path of agency. This paper focuses on how South Korea can sustain strategic autonomy amid U.S.–China rivalry by recalibrating its alliance with the United States, protecting itself from Chinese economic and political coercion, and diversifying partnerships in security, technology, and diplomacy. The central research question asks how South Korea can strengthen its autonomy while managing asymmetric dependence on the United States and growing vulnerability to China. Drawing on historical alliances, the THAAD deployment, and debates over technology alliances, the paper argues that autonomy is not neutrality but, rather, proactive leadership, institutional resilience, and a commitment to democratic values. By doing so, South Korea can shift from a reactive state to a proactive actor shaping a regional order based on freedom and stability.
Topic:: Cold War, Economics, Science and Technology, Alliance, Rivalry, Strategic Autonomy, Coercion, Middle Powers, and Conflict Analysis
Political Geography:: China, Asia, South Korea, and United States of America

98. Beyond Laughter: How Political Memes Can Threaten Peace in South Korea

Author:: Shin Mo
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: This paper examines political memes as a hybrid phenomenon at the intersection of media culture and political discourse. From a communication studies perspective, memes function as cultural texts that condense complex issues into shareable, humorous, and symbolic narratives, shaping how citizens interpret events and political actors in digital spaces. From a political science perspective, memes also serve as tools of mobilization, identity formation, and contestation, amplifying grassroots activism while potentially fueling polarization and disinformation. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and comparative examples, the analysis demonstrates how memes operate simultaneously as vehicles of satire, instruments of influence, and reflections of public sentiment. The paper argues that political memes are not trivial byproducts of online culture, but significant agents shaping political communication and democratic engagement in the digital era. It also highlights the potential role of Incheon and local academic institutions as important sites for researching, contextualizing, and educating about the political functions of memes in democratic and cross-cultural settings.
Topic:: Politics, Youth, Digital Culture, Polarization, Memes, and Political Participation
Political Geography:: Asia and South Korea

99. Relieving Borders: Youth, Soft Power, and the New Diplomacy for Peace in Korea

Author:: Suyoung (Sarina) Oh
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Despite decades of summits, declarations, and symbolic gestures, the Korean Peninsula remains ideologically divided and militarized. Traditional diplomacy has struggled under cycles of hope and disappointment, constrained by entrenched geopolitical realities and threat-based discourse. This paper argues that youth participation, cultural exchange, and soft power represent an emerging form of “new diplomacy,” a concept advanced in the field of peace and conflict resolution. This approach emphasizes positive and sustained forms of both direct and indirect contact, through cultural media, inter-Korean exchanges, and youth-driven initiatives, that reshape perceptions and identities beyond formal negotiations. Incheon, with its global networks and institutions, is highlighted as a strategic cultural gateway for fostering such exchanges. By analyzing cultural diplomacy, defector narratives, and peace education initiatives, the paper suggests that meaningful progress toward peace may be less about treaties and more about cultivating shared emotions, narratives, and imagination across borders.
Topic:: Youth, Soft Power, Borders, and Cultural Diplomacy
Political Geography:: Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Korea

100. The Case for Cybersecurity Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Songdo, Korea as a Minilateralist Model

Author:: Hyunwoo Jo
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: This paper examines the prospects for cybersecurity cooperation in Northeast Asia, where intensifying cyber dependencies intersect with great power rivalry. While claims of a “new era of warfare” are often overstated, cybercrime targeting private sectors has become increasingly widespread, and sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure remain a pressing concern. Despite skepticism toward global “tech alliances,” minilateral cooperation offers a more pragmatic path for trust-building and information sharing. This study addresses two central questions: Can Northeast Asian middle powers foster meaningful cybersecurity cooperation despite great power tensions? And how can Korea, through Songdo, Incheon, leverage its technological capacity and middle-power identity to establish a regional cybersecurity hub? By exploring these questions, the paper highlights the potential of Songdo as a platform for shaping norms and advancing security governance in the cyber domain.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Cybersecurity, Collaboration, Minilateralism, and Middle Powers
Political Geography:: Asia and Korea

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS