Israel Recognizes Somaliland; Will the US Be Next?
On December 26, 2025, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on X that Israel has recognized Somaliland, becoming the first country in the world to officially do so. “Over the past year, based on an extensive and ongoing dialogue, relations between Israel and Somaliland have taken shape,” he wrote. “Today we signed an agreement on mutual recognition […]
Africa’s Twin, Connected Crises
Joseph Diamond detects connections both ideological and material between crises in Nigeria and Sudan.
The Missing Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region
The Great Lakes region that encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is among Africa’s most beautiful regions. Cloud-covered volcanos, terraced fields, lush jungles, and lakes dot the landscape. It is also among the most violent. The June 2025 peace agreement signed at the White House between two of the region’s countries (Rwanda […]
Russia’s Defense Ties in the Middle East Poised to Rebound
Russia’s defense relationships in the Middle East and North Africa have been gravely weakened as a result of its war in Ukraine. However, a peace deal, sanctions relief, or even a lengthy ceasefire could provide Russia with an opportunity to resume arms sales and security assistance to the Middle East, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific. The […]
Africa in the Second Trump Administration
The Republican Party’s 2024 Platform did not mention Africa. Yet this does not mean that a coherent and potentially transformative American approach towards the “continent of tomorrow” cannot be found in the foreign policy vision articulated by President Trump and in the record of his first term. Here are three general guiding principles: First, America […]
Egypt’s Somalia Gamble
In late September, an Egyptian naval vessel docked in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to offload a shipment of weaponry including anti-aircraft guns and artillery, many of them outdated and some even World War II-vintage. It was Egypt’s second major delivery. A month before, two Egyptian C-130s landed at Mogadishu’s international airport to deliver a […]
WIll the Next International Crisis Be in Africa?
The United States is focused on three big global challenges. In the Middle East, it struggles to prevent a full regional war while supporting its ally Israel; in Europe, it supplies Ukraine with arms to blunt the Russians; and in the Western Pacific it strengthens a network of alliances to contain Chinese expansionism. Meanwhile, the […]
Making Somalia Safe Again
In January 2018, I traveled via armored convoy over 20 kilometers of bad roads from a regional airport to the Hirshabelle provincial state capital of Jowar in central Somalia. Protected by Burundian soldiers of the African Union peacekeeping force, we sped through countryside and villages controlled by the al-Shabaab terror group. In Jowar, the UN […]
Recent African Coups: <br>End of <i>Françafrique</i>, Need for US Leadership
Since 2020, six African countries have experienced a total of eight coups d’état. With the exception of Gabon, all occurred in the Sahel, the semi-arid band stretching across the continent between the Sahara Desert to the north and the tropical savannah to the south. The conventional narrative of “Africa Rising,” which had only recently replaced […]
What China Wants in Africa
Africa struggles to climb American policymakers’ priority list, but it has no such problem with China. For three decades, the Chinese government has expended immense energy courting African countries. With only two exceptions over the last thirty years, the Chinese foreign minister has made Africa his first overseas destination every year. Other senior Chinese officials […]
