Worldscope

  The South China Sea Disputes: A Conflict Managed—Until It Isn’t The South China Sea remains the world’s most consequential maritime flashpoint, and August 2025 has underscored why. Within days, multiple close calls at sea and in the air reinforced a pattern that has become grimly familiar: routine gray-zone pressure punctuated by sudden spikes of risk. Philippines–China interactions around Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal again dominated the headlines, while the United States and a widening circle of partners signaled support through presence and exercises. The disputes are no longer episodic quarrels over fishing grounds or energy blocks; they form a system of daily friction that can drift toward crisis on the back of a misunderstood maneuver, a broken tow line, or a skipper’s split-second miscalculation. What follows is a clear account of what is publicly known, what serious rumors suggest, and how the landscape might plausibly evolve over the next two years. What is...

  Bosnia on the Brink: Republika Srpska’s Secessionist Drive, the Narrative War Over Srebrenica, and the West–Russia Fault Line Summary Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered its gravest stress test since the 1995 Dayton peace settlement. The immediate trigger is the political and legal showdown between the Bosnian state and Milorad Dodik, president of the Serb-majority entity, Republika Srpska (RS). Dodik has been convicted and banned from public office by Bosnia’s state court for defying the international overseer (the High Representative), yet he refuses to accept the court’s authority and vows to continue governing. Belgrade’s leadership publicly rejects the verdict. Meanwhile, the RS assembly has passed laws to wall off the entity from state authority and to build parallel judicial structures—measures widely read as steps toward legal secession. The crisis unfolds amid EUFOR’s renewed security mandate, U.S. and U.K. sanctions on Dodik’s network, Moscow’s political embrace of Banja...