Henry Strahm Introduction Nearly four years after OpenAI released ChatGPT, the capabilities and adoption of advanced AI models have grown exponentially, paralleling past revolutionary technological advancements. As AI entered the workforce, productivity surged economic development. Despite the economic benefits of AI, it carries complex financial and national security risks. Investment is risky and potentially unsustainable. While AI agents are able to more efficiently find a

Edited by Edited by Emma Grace Jarvis, Alexa Fishman, Catie Crowe, Elina Flinn, Nate Wilson, Nadia Soifer, Katie Hunt, Ansley Hovater, and Avery Kesler Indo-Pacific Asia Written by Caroline Connors Indonesia Signs Defense Pact with Qatar, Pakistan, and Turkiye On Wednesday, October 21, representatives from Indonesia, Qatar, Pakistan, and Turkiye met in Doha, Qatar’s capital, to sign a defense pact that promotes cooperation on each state’s defense industries, establishes a pla

Elina Flinn Introduction Authoritarian regimes often appear indestructible until the moment their authority collapses. Iran experienced this in 1979, when a popular revolution toppled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and again in September 2022, when nationwide protests erupted following Mahsa Jina Amini’s death in morality police custody. Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, was detained in Tehran for allegedly violating compulsory hijab laws, taken to a detention center

Edited by Edited by Emma Grace Jarvis, Alexa Fishman, Caroline Connors, Chloe Bradley, Emily Sawires, Esha Dhungana, Gabriella Ramirez, Daniel McHugh, and Uma Miskinyar Indo-Pacific Asia Written by Catie Crowe China and North Korea Open Border Bridge to Bolster Trade On Thursday, Chinese state media reported that a long-delayed road bridge linking China and North Korea had finally opened. China completed its side of the bridge in 2014, but the North Korean government left its

Katie Leslie Introduction During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a semi-final match between England and Argentina turned into an intense contest that escalated into a controversial political statement. At the end of the game, some Argentine players lifted a banner reading, “Las Malvinas son Argentinas,” meaning “The Falkland Islands are Argentine.” The sovereignty disputes over the Falkland Islands began centuries ago and reached a climax in 1982 when the United Kingdom and Argentin

Edited by Edited by Emma Grace Jarvis, Alexa Fishman, Caroline Connors, Chloe Bradley, Emily Sawires, Esha Dhungana, Katie Hunt, Daniel McHugh, and Uma Miskinyar Indo-Pacific Asia Written by Catie Crowe Pakistani Government Barricades Islamabad Ahead of Planned Protest as Taliban-Associated Conflicts Occur in Both Pakistan and Afghanistan Protests organized by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were planned for Sunday, September 27th, in support of former Prime Minister Imran Kha

Edited by Edited by Emma Grace Jarvis, Alexa Fishman, Ansley Hovater, Catie Crowe, Elina Flinn, Nate Wilson, Nadia Soifer, Trinity De Lima, and Avery Kesler Indo-Pacific Asia Written by Caroline Connors Australian Prime Minister Says OpenAI Hacked a Healthcare Database Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday, September 24th at the UN summit in New York that an OpenAI “agent” had hacked the government’s public-facing medicare website. An investigati

Uma Miskinyar The Core Thesis If there is one prime takeaway that we must acknowledge amidst the ongoing Iran-U.S. conflict, it is this: Pakistan's mediation is driven in part by the costs Islamabad would bear from Iranian destabilization. Moving away from being viewed as a "security state" or "troubled partner," Islamabad is leveraging its unique geography and channels with both Washington and Tehran to make itself indispensable, using diplomacy as a tool to manage both its

Alexa Fishman Introduction In August 2022, King Mohammed VI of the Kingdom of Morocco addressed his people in a speech to mark Morocco’s principal anti-colonial holiday, the Revolution of the King and the People. In that speech, the King made a statement that has defined the Kingdom’s foreign policy in the years since — “I would like to send a clear message to the world: the Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco views its international environment”. His message was

Makayla Bangoura Overview In late 2025, the ongoing conflict between the Taliban and Pakistani forces erupted. The continuance of these cross-border exchanges has led to deadly attacks on military bases, boarder provinces along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, also known as the Durand line, and the capital city of Afghanistan, Kabul. In February, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the Pakistan Defense Minister, described the conflict as an “open war” between the two states. The global c