Latest Articles
Leapfrogging into the Dark: Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Developmental Transcendence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is recognised as a general-purpose technology capable of compressing developmental trajectories, transcending historical constraints, and catalysing broad-based economic progress in the Global South. In Africa particularly, an increasingly prominent Promethean discourse imagines AI as possessing a uniquely elastic and scalar capacity for cross-sectoral integration, capable of generating developmental gains across healthcare, education, agriculture, finance, and public administration; the dream, in its fullest iteration, being of a continent that inherits abundance without enduring the long, grinding ordeal of industrialisation that was, in any case, never fully permitted to run its course. In their more modest expression, these visions are not unsubstantiated – cases of AI-assisted healthcare delivery in Kenya and AI-enabled education services in Rwanda, inter alia, lend credence to AI’s elasticity. Yet, given the scale of capital investment and depths of institutional capacity required for their realisation, the conditions underpinning these claims nevertheless warrant closer examination.
When the Best Leave: Emigration as Regime Stabilizer in the Arab World
It is a striking political paradox: the very mass exodus that signals a country’s governance failure is often what keeps its leaders in power. For decades, Middle Eastern regimes have quietly mastered the art of treating the exit door not as a crisis, but as a survival tactic. By allowing millions of frustrated, educated young citizens to leave, ruling elites manage to systematically export their most potent critics and outsource their economic failures before domestic anger can boil over into organized revolt.
(Analysis): Back After a Decade: Decoding the CCP–KMT Leadership Meeting
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.
[Analysis] The Hungarian election and its ramifications for Europe
![[Analysis] The Hungarian election and its ramifications for Europe](https://i0.wp.com/thenewglobalorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20250621_174916-2-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1&resize=384%2C216)
Hungary’s April election was closely watched as test case for illiberalism’s survival, and it presented a sea-change to domestic, foreign, and European policy more broadly.
[REPORT] How Social Media is Reshaping Arab Identity Among Gen Z
![[REPORT] How Social Media is Reshaping Arab Identity Among Gen Z](https://i0.wp.com/thenewglobalorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/TikTok_app-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1&resize=384%2C216)
Arab identity has always been contested, but never quite like this. For Gen Z across the region, social media has become something far more than entertainment: it is a negotiation table, a sanctuary, and sometimes, a battleground. In a landscape where a coded tweet or a tactical beauty tutorial can carry real political weight, this generation is rewriting what it means to be Arab, in real time, across borders, and entirely on their own terms.
Control, Compute, and a Global Open-Source-Offensive: Beijing’s Blueprint for AI Dominance
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.
A Change of Tides: EU Security and Defence Partnerships. Australia as a case study
The signing of the EU-Australia Security and Defence Partnership epitomises a radical shift in the EU’s External Action and geopolitical self-awareness.
The Filipino Paradox: the Causes of Unwanted Teenage Pregnancies
Despite passing landmark reproductive health legislation in 2012, the Philippines faces a deepening crisis. While overall fertility rates have declined, pregnancies among girls aged 10 to 14 are rising. This article examines three structural causes that explain why the RH Law is reaching some women but leaving the youngest and most vulnerable girls behind.
Traore Playbook: Populist Legitimacy in the Age of Military Coups
How does a military leader maintain popularity despite rising violence? This analysis explores Ibrahim Traore’s populist playbook in Burkina Faso, examining how the junta uses a narrative construction to secure legitimacy in the absence of elections.
A history of reversal: Egypt’s descent into Israeli Energy Dependency
Egypt’s aspiration to become a regional energy hub clashes with its current reality. Following a drastic decline in local production—most notably from the Zohr field—Cairo finds itself increasingly indebted and reliant on energy imports. Driven by geopolitical necessity, Egypt has deepened its ties with Israel, signing one of the largest gas export agreements in history in 2025 to secure its energy future. Nonetheless, it brings forward a narrative to become a gas energy hub for the East Mediterranean, despite not being able to satisfy its own demand.