Stimson

Editor’s Note: Joe Macaron is an independent geopolitical analyst specializing in the Middle East. A former journalist, he has held fellowships at the Wilson Center and the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, managed International Monetary Fund public engagement in the Middle East and North Africa, and served in various capacities in the United Nations system. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

The perceived outcome of the NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye last week benefitted by overcoming anxieties and low expectations. The summit’s modest accomplishments were also on display, ranging from affirmations of a greater European and Canadian leadership role, along with spending commitments to match, and continued visible support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. This higher confidence in the alliance was an important and much-needed boost, but its durability is doubtful.

NATO’s Ankara Summit has put a spotlight on Ukraine’s military success against Russia and the support role played by Western partners. It has also highlighted, in particular, how both Ukraine and NATO have rapidly adapted to battlefield evolutions along with geopolitical trends — most notably, a U.S. pullback on direct support. A recent study trip to Brussels to examine the details of how NATO and the EU are acting and adapting to help Ukraine yielded valuable insights.

Editor’s Note: This brief was informed by expert presentations by Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue, PhD (Cornell University), Kathleen Mogelgaard (Population Institute), Andrew Selee, PhD (Migration Policy Institute), and Jennifer Sciubba, PhD (Population Reference Bureau), shared at an Environmental Security Program Congressional Masterclass on global demographic trends.

North Africa is navigating a period of acute strategic turbulence. The U.S.-Iran war and its regional aftershocks have reordered threat calculations across the Mediterranean region, reshaping the priorities of governments from Rabat to Cairo and testing the durability of longstanding U.S. partnerships in the region.

Online scam and fraud operations have grown into a transnational criminal enterprise of staggering scale, with networks across Southeast Asia trafficking workers into forced criminality, laundering proceeds through complex financial networks, and exploiting cyberspace to defraud victims worldwide.

Editor’s Note: Leonardo Jacopo Maria Mazzucco is a PhD candidate in Institutions and Politics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Italy. His research interests revolve around the Gulf region and maritime security.

Editor’s Note: Over the past year, members of the inaugural cohort of the Foreign Policy Futures mentorship program each developed an independent research project with support from the Strategy Program. They refined their ideas through mentorship and peer feedback, conducted original research, and presented their findings at an in-person summit at the Stimson Center.

Nearly two-thirds of citizens across seven Ouagadougou Partnership countries say women should be free to decide if and when to marry, but fewer than half believe women should have the same say over how many children to have, or when. That gap, surfaced in Afrobarometer’s latest survey results, is at the center of a new conversation between Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, and Marie Ba, Director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit.

Editor’s Note: This commentary was originally published in Italian in the July 2026 issue of Formiche magazine. As the camera panned across the Los Angeles Stadium during the United States’ first match of the 2026 World Cup, celebrities were in abundance. Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry, and George Lucas all featured on the screen. Despite only being a group stage match, the event kicked off with a triumphalist concert that rivaled a Super Bowl half time performance.