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[REPORT] More Human in Times of Ever More Artificial: A New Window of Opportunity for Mediating Vatican Diplomacy?

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As artificial intelligence increasingly transforms societies, economies, and political systems, questions of ethics, human dignity, and social cohesion gain renewed importance. This paper explores the potential role of Vatican diplomacy in addressing these challenges. Drawing on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” (2026), it argues that the Holy See represents a unique source of moral authority and soft power in a rapidly changing world. Unlike actors relying on military or economic influence, Vatican diplomacy promotes dialogue, mediation, and human-centered development. In an age shaped by competing technological futures, it may help foster alternative narratives grounded in solidarity, peace, and human dignity.

REPORT

[Report] A Silent Arms Race? North Africa and the Middle East: Recent Military Acquisitions

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The Middle East and North Africa remain among the world’s largest arms-importing regions, driven by geopolitical tensions, proxy conflicts, and rapid military modernization. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, and Egypt are expanding their defense capabilities through advanced aircraft, drones, missile systems, and strategic partnerships with powers including the United States, France, China, and Russia. At the same time, regional actors are increasingly investing in domestic defense industries and drone technologies, reshaping modern warfare across conflicts in Libya, Yemen, Syria, and beyond. The proliferation of unmanned systems, combined with illicit arms transfers and ongoing rivalries, continues to intensify instability throughout the region.

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(Analysis): Back After a Decade: Decoding the CCP–KMT Leadership Meeting

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Beyond the usual rhetoric, the restored CCP–KMT meeting after a decade raises questions about Beijing’s cross-strait strategy and what the KMT under Cheng Li-wun is trying to achieve politically.

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Control, Compute, and a Global Open-Source-Offensive: Beijing’s Blueprint for AI Dominance

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The United States and China are increasingly locked in a competition over the future of artificial intelligence, but they pursue fundamentally different strategies. While the US channels massive private investment into the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), China focuses on three core pillars: maintaining political control over AI systems, achieving technological self-reliance in semiconductor production, and promoting open-source AI models as global alternatives to Western platforms. Through initiatives like the AI+ program and its latest Five-Year Plan, Beijing aims to integrate AI deeply into industry, infrastructure, and national security rather than concentrating solely on frontier AI research.

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Is Canada Prepared to Defend Its Arctic Sovereignty in a Militarising North?

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This article explores whether Canada is truly prepared to defend its Arctic sovereignty in a region that is becoming increasingly strategic due to climate change and geopolitical competition. As melting ice opens new shipping routes and access to natural resources, global powers like Russia, China and the United States are strengthening their presence in the Arctic.

While Canada maintains a historical and political claim over the region, the country faces significant challenges including major underinvestment, limited military capabilities, outdated infrastructure and so on. The article argues that to remain credible, Canada must move beyond their symbolic presence on the territory and invest in long-term capabilities and consistent engagement in the North.

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Dynamics Behind the EU Referendum in Iceland

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Iceland faces various potential threats and opportunities that will inevitably change the country’s future and strategic independence. The current global shift towards multipolarity and unilateralism represents a serious threat to the autonomy of small states. A valuable option is signing treaties with more powerful states or joining larger international organisations.

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The Politics of Emergence: African Middle Powers and Strategic Cooperation on AI

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The African Union (AU), in its first and only continent-wide AI strategy, turns to a familiar source of authority: an estimate of generative AI’s impact on global GDP by McKinsey. Somewhat arbitrarily, the AU extracts a neat 5 percent share for Africa and concludes that generative AI could add between $110 to $220 billion to African GDP a year. A striking figure, certainly. A very elastic one too. To dwell on the elasticity of these projections is, perhaps, to miss the point. Whether the figure is $110 to $220 billion is secondary to the conditions under which Africa’s AI gains might be realised.

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The Faroese strategy in a stormy geopolitical sea

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The Faroe Islands represent a unique case in which a small geopolitical actor can pursue its goals with pragmatism and determination despite its size and limited resources. The Faroese economy is mostly dominated by the fishery sector, which is also the most relevant element influencing the islands’ autonomous foreign policy and international activity.