Beijing's duty-free access for African exports promises mutual economic gains, but more importantly, it deepens its strategic influence across the continent

A generation after the Soviets limped out of Central Asia, and only five years after the Americans followed suit, Russia is back in Kabul with a deal to train and equip the Taliban's fighters

Islamabad kept both sides talking even as missiles were being launched. That tenacity looks to have paid dividends in a way that could yet reshape the Middle East's power dynamics.

China understands that North Korea is no longer the besieged ally with no gateway other than Beijing, and that leaving the field entirely open to Russia carries a mounting strategic cost

Trump's allies and rivals seek new deterrence

Since last May's brief yet dangerous military confrontation between two nuclear-armed powers, a tenuous calm has held. But should a new war erupt, the margin of error this time will be far slimmer.

The Communist Party's general secretary since 2012 may have grown up in a secure compound for the elite, but he forged his values in the fields of rural Shaanxi province

From Tokyo's perspective, there were three key issues: Taiwan, Iran, and the broader bilateral framework

Beijing can't easily afford to escalate any economic struggle with Washington