The World Today: Spring 2025: The Middle East’s Great Realignment

Among the many stories in the spring issue of ‘The World Today’, we explore how the Middle East is being redrawn and take stock of Trump’s whirlwind first 50 days in power.

The millions who fled Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 are now facing pressure to return. Olga Tokariuk speaks to some caught in a difficult dilemma.

Finland, Sweden and their neighbours have much to teach the UK about ‘total defence’ and building societal resilience to Russian ‘grey zone’ warfare, writes Robin Potter.

The low-cost chatbot could herald an era of affordable public-sector AI – but governments may need to weigh the potential political costs, writes Chris Stokel-Walker.

Most of the 56,000 people who live on the island don’t want to be under the control of Denmark or President Trump – but we must seek consensus and plan carefully before any referendum, writes Aka Hansen.

The Argentinian president’s radical programme has support from Elon Musk among others – but its success has come at a high cost and ignores a festering currency problem, writes Monica de Bolle.

Disagreements between high- and lower-income countries have left the pandemic preparedness treaty in intensive care. The prescription? Developing nations can look to each other for health equity, writes Ebere Okereke.

Sharing British climate policy know-how could help the world’s largest emitter decarbonize faster. But the UK government must find the political courage to collaborate, writes Chris Aylett.

Leena Koni Hoffmann tells Sara Seth why ‘integrity role models’ are key to ending a cycle that hurts the poorest most.

Victory for Civic Coalition-backed candidate in May would end the government’s legislative deadlock with hardline president, writes Iona Allan.

Christopher Bobyn meets the Japanese who spend their spare time reimagining a complicated Second World War legacy and asks how the country’s imperial memories touch on its future.

Impeachment proceedings against Yoon Suk Yeol mean a pause on the South Korean president’s effective foreign policy and further opportunity for North Korea’s leader to increase his regime’s nuclear capabilities, warns Edward Howell.

A secret CIA operation spent decades flooding the Eastern Bloc with banned literature – nowhere more successfully than Poland in the 1980s, writes Charlie English.

The director of Chatham House’s new Centre for Global Governance and Security on the shift to more ‘transactional’ global relations, civilian suffering in the Donbas and why the era of western dominance is over.

A potted selection of reviews from our sister journal ‘International Affairs’, by its book reviews editor Mariana Vieira.