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US international affairs scholar who pointed to soft power as a complement to military and economic might

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has wasted little time taking his first overseas trip since Labor won a historic victory in Australia’s federal election. He’ll head to Indonesia today to meet the country’s new president, Prabowo Subianto.

Open a book of maps and look for the “Indo-Pacific” region – it likely won’t be there.

When the CDU/CSU and the SPD sealed their coalition agreement to form the next German government, the would-be chancellor Friedrich Merz proudly announced: “Germany is back on track”. Against a backdrop of considerable geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges, the partners wanted to send clear signal not only to the German public,…

There is a growing feeling in New Zealand that the regional geopolitical situation is becoming less stable and more conflicted. China has ramped up its Pacific engagement, most recently with the Cook Islands, and the United States under Donald Trump is abandoning the old multilateral world order.

For much of April and into May, a team of negotiators from Indonesia have been in Washington to discuss trading relations between the world’s largest economy and another forecast to be in the Top 5 within a generation.

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, his administration has slashed the work of many U.S. government agencies, including those focused on foreign policy. Now, there is concern that the Peace Corps could join the other foreign aid programs the administration is trying to dismantle.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said foreign policy “belongs” to Trump. But Sen. Rubio had a long record of legislative oversight on the topic.

Pro-EU Romania is facing a possible foreign policy shift, with a far-right leader -- and fan of US President Donald Trump -- topping the first round of a tense election rerun and now up against a centrist mayor for president.

Formal diplomatic meetings are still significant in today’s world, but a new approach is quietly shaping international affairs. This method, often unnoticed by the public, involves informal communication channels, intelligence-based analysis, and indirect negotiations. Governments use these tools to pursue foreign policy objectives more flexibly and with less political risk.

From the Great White North to Down Under and beyond, Trump's chaos is an unexpected boon for normie democracy