Eurasia takes shape: How the SCO just flipped the world order

As a rudderless West watched on, the 20th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was laser-focused on two key deliverables: shaping up Afghanistan and kicking off a full-spectrum Eurasian integration.

Predictions for 2023? Annus horribilis with some surprising upsides

The Cradle's writers offer up their predictions for 2023. The common theme is massive global shifts, some good, some bad.

Eurasia’s Middle Corridor: An Atlanticist frenzy to stifle Europe-Asia integration

Geopolitical interests between the Anglo-American establishment and the Sino-Russian-led axis will clash over the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

Palestinian, Chinese Presidents discuss economic cooperation in Saudi Arabia

The Chinese President extended an invitation to President Mahmoud Abbas to visit China, to boost bilateral relations

Arab leaders flock to Saudi Arabia as Chinese president receives lavish welcome

Heads of state from across West Asia and North Africa are set to take part in two major summits with the Chinese president

‘Samarkand Spirit’ to be driven by ‘responsible powers’ Russia and China

The SCO summit of Asian power players delineated a road map for strengthening the multipolar world

Peace with Syria: The final piece in Turkey’s foreign policy puzzle

Ankara has managed to reset relations with several neighbors, yet normalization with Damascus has remained the most elusive, until recently. Why now? And what will it take?

‘Independent nations must counteract illegal sanctions by US’: Sergei Lavrov

The Russian FM called for a full restoration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and condemned the Israeli airstrike which crippled Damascus International Airport

Juggling grenades: To contain China, the US will ignore Russia in India

Divergent policies on Moscow will not get in the way of Indo-US efforts to counter Beijing’s regional influence.

At Moscow meeting, Russia and Iran choreograph new moves

Tehran and Moscow appear to have dispensed with thorny setbacks to their relationship and look set to strike comprehensive new bilateral and multilateral arrangements

The Last American War … will be in Europe

Two weeks into the Ukraine conflict, the Atlantic alliance is already fraying. Europe, which helped destroy much of West Asia, is now the battlefield for the Last American War.

Iran-Russia hit maximum strategy

Three ain't a crowd: The Iran-Russia summit this week, concurrent with RIC military drills in the Sea of Oman, in advance of a Xi-Putin meeting in two weeks, suggests a rapidly-advancing strategic vision for the three Eurasian powers.

Turkey’s existential choice: BRI or bust

Turkey may be where east meets west, but it can no longer afford to straddle two opposing geoeconomic agendas vying to define West and Central Asia's development. Ankara must choose, and soon.

Xi of Arabia and the petroyuan drive

Xi Jinping has made an offer difficult for the Arabian Peninsula to ignore: China will be guaranteed buyers of your oil and gas, but we will pay in yuan.

Everybody wants to hop on the BRICS Express

Eurasia is about to get a whole lot larger as countries line up to join the Chinese and Russian-led BRICS and SCO, to the detriment of the west

How a missile in Kabul connects to a Speaker in Taipei

Washington’s hard power display of taking out Al-Qaeda’s Al-Zawahiri will not be reciprocated by Beijing over Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan. It does however, definitively bury the decades-long era of cooperative US-Chinese relations.

India-Russia-Iran: Eurasia’s new transportation powerhouses

No longer just an 'alternative route' on a drawing board, the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) is paying dividends in a time of global crisis. And Moscow, Tehran and New Delhi are now leading players in the Eurasian competition for transportation routes.

The Empire is not done torturing Afghanistan

Despite its resounding defeat, NATO is not quite done with inflicting misery on the land of the Afghans

Behind the Tin Curtain: BRICS+ vs NATO/G7

The west is nostalgically caught up with outdated 'containment' policies, this time against Global South integration. Unfortunately for them, the rest of the world is moving on, together.

St. Petersburg sets the stage for the War of Economic Corridors

In St. Petersburg, the world's new powers gather to upend the US-concocted “rules-based order” and reconnect the globe their way

NATO vs Russia: what happens next

In Davos and beyond, NATO's upbeat narrative plays like a broken record, while on the ground, Russia is stacking up wins that could sink the Atlantic order.

Erdogan in Kiev, Putin in Beijing: can neo-Ottomanism fit into Greater Eurasia?  

Reporting from Istanbul: As the world turns further over monumental announcements from the Putin-Xi summit in Beijing, Turkey's Erdogan keeps walking a thinning tightrope between NATO and Eurasia

US begins ‘largest ever’ naval drills in the Red Sea alongside regional allies

For the first time ever Israel will participate in naval drills with several nations it does not have formal relations with, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman

Checkmate: Iran is spearheading a geopolitical sea change in West Asia

While the west bangs on about Vienna talks, sanctions and military options, Iran has been quietly building a vast network of alternative solutions to cement its Asian ascent

Assad, Syria and China’s new Silk Road

Count on Syria becoming an important West Asian hub in China's Belt and Road Initiative

An Emirati Trojan horse in Turkey

Erdogan welcomed MbZ with open arms and gained $10 billion for it; chump change for the Emirati crown prince who is on a quest to reshape West Asia

Russia is primed for a Persian Gulf security ‘makeover’

Russia is the one state with the necessary clout, tools, sweeteners and relationships to nudge the Persian Gulf into a new security paradigm

String of pearls: Yemen could be the Arab hub of the Maritime Silk Road

With an Ansarallah takeover of Yemen, Asia's trade and connectivity projects could expand into some of the world's most strategic waterways