Repeated U.S. military interventions and alignment with Israeli strategic priorities have eroded American credibility in the Middle East and weakened global confidence in U.S. leadership. The United States can restore its strategic influence only through diplomatic consistency, restraint, and a more independent regional policy.

The question “Where is NATO heading?” has long been debated in academic circles. Under pressure from Donald Trump, the answer is gradually emerging: NATO’s trajectory mirrors that of many international institutions today, which are not collapsing abruptly but transforming themselves.

Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 34 percent among the American people, the lowest level of his second term. Given the U.S. war against Iran, the growing internal divisions within his administration and the rising inflationary pressure at home, Trump now has juggle a lot at once.

Labeling China as part of an “Axis of Chaos” misrepresents its strategy by overstating its alignment with other U.S. adversaries and wrongly implying that it seeks global instability. China’s power and the challenge it poses to the United States instead stem primarily from its deep integration and central role in the global economy, not from fostering chaos or acting as part of a unified anti-U.S. bloc.

By Nicu Popescu and Fredrik Wesslau PARIS—For decades, much of Europe viewed military engagement through the lens of NATO or the European Union, since t

The current U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia is generating a range of negative effects. If the United States fails to adjust its competitive, confrontational and self-serving foreign policy, its influence in the region is likely to face further decline.

For the United States and China, the very concept of a rules-based international order, once a topic of agreement, has turned into disagreement. That is the current distorted reality in their relationship. It is not only power that is at stake but the meaning of order itself.

China neither seeks nor intends to replace the United States in filling any so-called “vacuum”, nor should it be expected to play such a role, says leading Tsinghua IR scholar Da Wei in the recent interview with The Paper.

Canada and the five Nordic countries have vowed to seek closer “middle power” cooperation, a strategic effort to preserve national sovereignty. The move exposes a rift in the U.S.-led alliance system, which faces multiple uncertainties, including internal coordination challenges and U.S. pressure.

The messy crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has clarified how power works in the 21st century. It reminds us that the greatest long-term threat to the United States is not China’s military buildup or Russian aggression, but the gradual fragmentation of the alliance system that has underwritten its global leadership since World War II.