Ambition Is Not Enough Without Enforcement By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam is the top nation most likely to become the world’s greatest champion of making plastic pollution a pending threat. Producing over 3.9 million tons of plastic rubbish annually, and the majority of it running into rivers, coastlines, and eventually the ocean, the problem has been a public health emergency ...

Seven strategic lessons the war taught and the questions that remain. The American empire seems to be sinking deeper into a quagmire of war with Iran, with only bad options on the horizon. Donald Trump is now being urged to resolve this disaster as quickly as possible. Perhaps the decisive factor is that the war has begun to strain the ...

Under the current circumstances, the US’ sanction threats amount to empty rhetoric only. A new system has been built, and it will grow even stronger with the participation of numerous countries following the war in Iran. By Serhat Latifoğlu The threat by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent by sending letters to 2 Chinese banks threatening sanctions if Iranian money found ...

Diversification, institutional transformation, and human development investment are not yet an option—they are a requirement. By Mehmet Enes Beşer Cambodia comes to a juncture in its development journey. Three decades of rapid GDP growth led by garments, construction, and tourism have ended, and Cambodia now confronts a daunting set of domestic and international challenges. Its near-term economic goals—to become an ...

Posted by by United World International 6 Min Read May 5, 2026 Editor-in-Chief of Aydınlık Newspaper Tevfik Kadan summarized the important parts of Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum regarding multipolarity and Turkiye. Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s two-hour speech was significant, containing important messages for Türkiye and Europe between the lines. Lavrov ...

Context and International Repercussions I am in Coro, the capital of Falcón state in western Venezuela, where I was invited to participate in the meeting “The Enduring Relevance of Bolivarian Diplomacy: 200 Years After the Amphictyonic Congress of Panama.” This event continues the commemoration of the bicentennial of that important continental gathering. Organized by the Simón Bolívar Center for Studies, ...

The 1956 Suez Canal example, Iran and the U.S.’s maximalist goals, and global realities. By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist While the ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are currently only disrupting global energy markets, the real major impacts will emerge in the coming days. About 60 days later, the first signs began to emerge, with the surge in energy ...

A Fractured Shield in a Growing Digital Economy By Mehmet Enes Beşer The digital economy of ASEAN is growing with abandon. More than 460 million are connected online, and also a thriving e-commerce market that will cross over $300 billion by 2025. The most dynamic digital frontier in the world is Southeast Asia. But growing digital connectivity translates to growing ...

Speech held at the conference ‘Energy and the Global Economy: Its Significance and Impact in the Aftermath of the Ukrainian and Middle East Crises’, organized by the Russian House International Relations Club in Mumbai, India UWI author and political scientist Onur Sinan Güzaltan gave a presentation on the consequences of the Iran/US-Israel war and possible future developments at a conference ...

Notes from a roundtable discussion at the Center for Iranian Studies in Türkiye. The war, which began with the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, 2026, is currently in a period of ceasefire. What follows remains highly uncertain. A process full of fluctuations and contradictions continues to unfold. What is certain, however, we are at a stage to be ...

An Analysis of King Charles’ III recent visit to Washington. In this article, I aim to analyze the relationship between diplomatic conventions and symbolic politics in the interactions between Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, and Charles III, the head of the British monarchy. In the discipline of international relations, the view that diplomatic gestures should be ...

Posted by by United World International 5 Min Read May 2, 2026 By Mehmet Enes Beşer Australia keeps calling itself a “middle power.” Fine. But the label is starting to feel like one of those old stickers on a suitcase: once useful, now mostly nostalgic. Because the world Australia learned to do “middle-power diplomacy” in—the world of patient committees, slow ...