International Affairs Archives

Analyses

International Affairs

Many media outlets highlight how Israel is increasingly isolated in the West regarding Gaza. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the number of pro-Western states—above all Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and Turkey, and in Europe, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, and the Netherlands—that hold a negative perception of Israel is growing. The Israeli government and army continue to present the current military intervention—Operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” launched last May—as a necessary response to the “existential threat” posed by Hamas, while a growing part of the international community can no longer perceive any danger in the starving masses of Palestinians wandering around food distribution centers in constant danger of being killed.

International Affairs
Abraham Accords: Syria and Lebanon Facing the Test of the Arab Concert
Riccardo Cristiano 11 July 2025

United by geography and a long history that, since the end of the Ottoman Empire and especially during the long rule of the Assads, has taken on the characteristics of colonialism and occupation in the name of a “Greater Syria,” Lebanese and Syrians today share the same hope: that tomorrow will be different from today, putting an end to conflicts and reducing them to “wars of the past.” Reality demands this. In 2018, Lebanon’s GDP exceeded 55 billion dollars; today, it barely reaches 20 billion. One hundred thousand Lebanese pounds, which were worth 65 dollars at that time, are now worth just one. In Syria, in 2011, when the brutal repression of anti-government protests began, GDP reached 45 billion dollars; today it is only 9 billion.
International Affairs
Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is a Boon to Democrats,
but Don’t Expect them to Seize the Moment
Hussein Ibish 7 July 2025

The U.S. has never been short of hideous or harebrained legislation from both liberals and conservatives. But President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Budget Bill,” passed on Thursday by Congress, outdoes anything in living memory. In one gigantic sweep, it enacts at least four major national initiatives, each of which would alone qualify as among the most appalling legislative acts in modern American history.
International Affairs, Society
Iran: Transformation from Within or Civil War from Without?
Pegah Zohouri 4 July 2025

Two weeks after the ceasefire that halted the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran, regional tensions remain high, and domestic reverberations within Iran continue to unfold. While the conflict briefly united a politically fragmented society, it also exposed deep structural fissures. Most Iranians rejected foreign intervention, reaffirming a longstanding scepticism rooted in historical memory and national experience. Although critical of the current system, most of them seemed to agree that meaningful and sustainable transformation could only emerge from within.
International Affairs
Yaroslav Hrytsak: “Only a Security Union Can Bring Sustanable Peace in Ukraine”
Alessandra Tommasi 20 June 2025

“I’m ready to meet anyone, including Zelensky.” Vladimir Putin’s recent statement suggested a openness to renewed negotiations – though only “in the final phase.” But skepticism remains high in Kyiv and across Western capitals. The Kremlin’s latest proposal – disarmament, new elections, and ceding of occupied territories – was flatly rejected by Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia continues to escalate military pressure: just last Tuesday, it launched over 440 drones and 32 missiles in one of the most intense attacks since the war began. Against this backdrop, Reset DOC interviewed historian Yaroslav Hrytsak about Ukraine’s military position, diplomatic deadlock, Western support, and prospects for peace.
International Affairs
The LA Protests Are What Donald Trump Has Been Waiting For
Hussein Ibish 16 June 2025

It’s a real-life film noir in the City of Angels. U.S. President Donald Trump is once again hurling Americans through the looking glass, this time – fittingly – in Los Angeles. It feels lifted from 1930s hard-boiled pulp fiction in which nothing is as it appears and everything is the inverse of what powerful men assert. It’s genuinely shocking, while also seemingly inevitable, that U.S. military forces are being deployed to major cities with the express purpose of trying to intimidate, quash, and, ultimately, violently confront Americans who dare raise their voices against Mr. Trump’s policies and practices. It is one of the most significant inflection points since the last election took America on the road away from constitutional democracy and towards the kind of repressive lawlessness this President admires in other leaders and is seeking to emulate in the U.S.
International Affairs
Loay Alshareef: “A Palestinian State – If Its Leadership Recognizes Israel”
Alessandra Tommasi 12 June 2025

“I’m proud to be called a normalizer by the Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliates.” That’s how Dubai-based blogger Loay Alshareef responds to attacks from across the Arab world, where the majority still oppose full recognition of the State of Israel. A practicing Muslim of Saudi origin, Alshareef doesn’t shy away from controversy: he openly defines himself as a “Zionist” and sees the Abraham Accords not as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, but as a path to peace. On June 11, 2025, the activist and influencer took part in a roundtable discussion in Bologna, Italy, focused on combating antisemitism – an occasion on which Reset DOC spoke with him to share his views on the ongoing war in Gaza.
International Affairs
Trump’s Full Gulf Agenda: From the Houthis to Gaza.
And the Trump Golf Club
Hussein Ibish 12 May 2025

From May 13-16, President Donald J. Trump will repeat the opening gesture of his first administration by making the initial major diplomatic travel of his second term to Saudi Arabia (excluding his unanticipated visit to Rome for the funeral of the late Pope Francis) but this time also including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. This trip comes at a highly significant moment in U.S.-Gulf Arab relations, and all parties will have specific agendas and deliverables at stake. Overall, Trump’s trip reinforces the centrality of these partnerships for all sides and signals that he continues to view Gulf Arab countries as important partners, not just for the United States but for his personal and political goals.
International Affairs
Occupied Ukraine: Where Civilians Vanish into Russian Prisons
Ilaria Romano 10 May 2025

According to the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), a Ukrainian human rights organization that has been documenting war crimes since 2014 in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk — and since 2022 across all occupied territories — at least 7,000 civilians are currently being held illegally. However, only 1,600 of those cases have been officially confirmed. The remaining 5,400 are listed as missing and may be in the same situation.
International Affairs
Modi’s Kashmir Narrative Collapses Amid India-Pakistan Crisis
Maria Tavernini 8 May 2025

India’s army launched “Operation Sindoor,” firing a series of missiles at nine locations described by New Delhi as “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan territory and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The strikes – which killed 31 people, including women and children, and injured 46 others – triggered a swift response from Islamabad, which condemned the attack as an “act of war” and vowed a “befitting reply.” Pakistan claims the missiles targeted civilian sites, including two mosques, and says it downed five Indian planes in its counterattack. Indian sources report that at least 11 people were killed in Pakistan’s retaliation.