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The war helped secure an election victory for Anutin and Thai conservatives. And that was almost certainly by design.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was saddened to learn of the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a giant of the civil rights movement in the US and a longtime champion of human rights, equality and justice around the world. Credit: United Nations

By Purnaka L. de Silva
NEW YORK, Feb 20 2026 (IPS)

When the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. declared, “Keep hope alive,” it was not a slogan. It was a discipline. It was a moral posture. It was a promise to those America had locked out of its prosperity and pushed to the margins of its democracy. And for more than five decades, Jackson kept that promise – organizing, marching, preaching, negotiating, and standing in solidarity with oppressed peoples at home and abroad.

In mourning Jackson, the United States does not simply bid farewell to a towering civil rights leader. It salutes one of the architects of modern American conscience.

The Heir to a Movement, the Builder of a Coalition

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, Jackson came of age in the crucible of segregation. As a young activist, he worked alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, absorbing the lessons of nonviolent resistance while sharpening his own gifts for oratory and mobilization. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson did not retreat into despair. He stepped forward.

In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), later merging it into the Rainbow Coalition. That phrase – Rainbow Coalition – was not rhetorical flourish. It was strategic genius. Jackson understood that America’s power structure thrived on division: Black against white, native-born against immigrant, worker against worker. His coalition sought to transcend those fault lines.

Black, brown, yellow, and poor white Americans; labor unions; family farmers; peace activists; Arab Americans; Jewish progressives; Asian Americans; Latinos; Native Americans—Jackson invited them all into a shared moral project. In the 1980s, when he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, millions who had never seen themselves reflected in presidential politics suddenly felt visible. He did not win the presidency. But he expanded the boundaries of who could plausibly seek it.

In doing so, Jackson helped pave the road that others would travel – most notably Barack Obama who went on to become the first African American President of the United States of America. Without the Rainbow Coalition, the arc of American political inclusion would have bent far more slowly.

Internationalism as Moral Imperative

Jackson’s courage was not confined to domestic battles. At a time when Cold War orthodoxy and Middle East politics discouraged nuance and punished dissent, he insisted that American moral credibility required consistency.

He extended solidarity to the oppressed people of Palestine long before it was politically fashionable – or safe – to do so. Jackson argued that the dignity and rights of Palestinians were inseparable from the universal principles Americans claimed to cherish. He sought dialogue with leaders across divides, believing that empathy was not endorsement, and that engagement was a prerequisite for peace.

He was equally forthright in condemning South Africa’s apartheid regime. While many U.S. leaders hedged or prioritized strategic interests, Jackson stood with the anti-apartheid movement. He supported sanctions and economic pressure to dismantle a system that codified racial subjugation. When Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years of imprisonment, Jackson was among those who celebrated not only a man’s freedom but a nation’s rebirth.

In both Palestine and South Africa, Jackson’s stance reflected a deeper conviction: that civil rights were not an American export but a universal birthright. His faith demanded it. His politics operationalized it.

Faith, Integrity, and the Politics of Presence

Jackson was first and always a preacher. His sermons were political, but his politics were pastoral. He believed that despair was the greatest ally of injustice. To tell the forgotten that they mattered was itself an act of resistance.

He traveled where others would not. He negotiated for the release of hostages in Syria and Cuba. He met with heads of state and with families in housing projects. He listened.

Critics sometimes accused him of courting controversy or of grandstanding. But Jackson understood a hard truth: marginalized communities often need someone willing to occupy uncomfortable space on their behalf. Silence, in his view, was complicity.

His life was not without flaws or missteps. No life of consequence is. Yet what distinguished Jackson was his refusal to abandon the struggle. He endured political setbacks, media caricatures, and internal party resistance. He persisted.

Leadership, he demonstrated, is not about perfection. It is about fidelity—to principles, to people, to purpose.

The Rainbow as a Democratic Blueprint

In an era increasingly defined by polarization, Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition reads less like a relic of the 1980s and more like a blueprint for democratic survival. He recognized demographic change not as a threat but as a promise. He saw in America’s diversity the possibility of moral and economic renewal.

He championed voting rights, labor protections, public education, and economic justice. He opposed apartheid abroad and discrimination at home. He insisted that foreign policy reflect domestic values and that domestic policy reckon with global inequality.

The Rainbow was not naïve about power. It was strategic. It sought to translate moral energy into electoral leverage. Jackson registered voters. He built grassroots networks. He forced party platforms to incorporate issues once dismissed as fringe.

His presidential campaigns altered the calculus of American politics. They demonstrated that Black candidates could compete nationally, that poor and working-class voters could be mobilized across racial lines, and that progressive foreign policy positions had a constituency.

A Hand Extended Across Divides

Perhaps Jackson’s most underappreciated gift was his willingness to extend a hand of friendship where animosity seemed entrenched. He believed in meeting adversaries face-to-face. He believed that even hardened systems could yield to persistent moral pressure.

In Palestine, Rev. Jesse Jackson Senior spoke of human rights and mutual recognition. In South Africa, he, spoke of freedom and reconciliation. At home, he, spoke of multiracial democracy.

When few American leaders dared to articulate solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation, Jackson did. When Washington’s establishment hesitated to confront Pretoria’s apartheid regime, Jackson did not. His courage was not abstract. It was embodied in travel, in speeches, in alliances, in risks taken.

He paid political costs for these positions. But he did not recalibrate his convictions to suit prevailing winds.

The Best of the United States

To commemorate Jesse Jackson is to acknowledge the paradox of America itself. He emerged from a nation scarred by slavery and segregation, yet he believed in its redemptive capacity. He criticized its failures unsparingly, yet he invested his life in its institutions.

He was, in that sense, profoundly patriotic.

The United States at its best is not defined by military might or economic dominance. It is defined by its capacity for self-correction. By its willingness to expand the circle of belonging. By its recognition that justice delayed is democracy diminished.

Jackson embodied that tradition. He did not romanticize America. He challenged it. He called it to live up to its founding ideals – not selectively, but universally.

As debates rage today over voting rights, racial equity, immigration, Middle East policy, and America’s global role, Jackson’s life offers a moral compass. He reminds us that coalitions are built, not assumed. That solidarity is practiced, not proclaimed. That hope is sustained through organization.

Keeping Hope Alive

In the final analysis, Jesse Jackson’s greatest achievement may have been psychological. He taught millions that their voices mattered. That they were not condemned to permanent marginalization. That politics could be an instrument of empowerment rather than exclusion.

For Black Americans who had never seen a serious presidential bid from one of their own, he opened a door. For Palestinians seeking recognition of their humanity, he offered validation. For South Africans resisting apartheid, he offered solidarity. For workers, immigrants, and the poor, he offered a coalition.

He lived the conviction that the struggle for justice is indivisible.

Today, as the rainbow he envisioned faces new storms, the measure of our tribute will not be in words but in action. To honor Jesse Jackson is to organize. To vote. To speak. To stand with the oppressed – whether in Chicago, Johannesburg, or Gaza. To build alliances across lines others insist are permanent.

He demonstrated that leadership grounded in faith, integrity, and courage can alter a nation’s trajectory. He showed that America’s story is not finished – and that its best chapters are written by those who refuse to surrender to cynicism.

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. kept hope alive.

The question now is whether we will.

Purnaka L. de Silva, Ph.D., is College and University Adjunct Professor of the Year 2022, Best Adjunct Professor 2024-2025 and Nominated Best Adjunct Professor 2026 at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations Seton Hall University; Visiting Professor Sol Plaatje University Faculty of Humanities; Director Institute of Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta; and Strategic Advisor Lead Integrity.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Five decades after his prescient wartime exposé of the Khmer Rouge, Ith Sarin resurfaces to shed new light on his life ahead of the publication of a new translation.

Pyari Hessa (#07) in action for Jamshedpur FT. Credit: Jamshedpur FC

By Diwash Gahatraj
DELHI, Feb 20 2026 (IPS)

Pyari Hessa, 26, balances long shifts as a loco traffic controller at a steel company in Jamshedpur with evening football practice on the same turf where professionals train.

A trans woman from the Ho tribal community, she was born Pyare Lal in Bedamundui, a remote village 50 kilometres away from Chaibasa, the headquarters town of the West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand. For years, she fought against family expectations and societal norms for the right to live authentically and to be seen simply as a person.

Today, as captain and striker for Jamshedpur FT( Football Team) in India’s first-ever football tournament dedicated to transgender women, the Transgender Football League, her fight for acceptance finds powerful expression on the pitch.

League match action between Jamshedpur FC and Chaibasa FC. Photo Credit: Jamshedpur FC

Launched on December 7, 2025, under the Jamshedpur Super League (JSL) by Jamshedpur Football Club (FC), this groundbreaking eight-team tournament brings together around 70 transgender women, many hailing from Santhal, Ho, and other local tribal communities. Hosted at the JRD Tata Sports Complex’s artificial football turf, the league features a fast-paced seven-a-side format.

The players come from different walks of life; some are factory workers, daily wage labourers, stage performers, e-rickshaw drivers, and more, from areas like Chaibasa, Chakradharpur, Noamundi, Saraikela, and beyond, competing not only for goals but also for visibility, dignity, and a true sense of belonging. In this space, they are celebrated for their skill, passion, and teamwork, transcending societal barriers and redefining inclusion through sport.

Kundan Chandra, head of Grassroots and Youth Football at Jamshedpur FC, explains the club’s thinking.

“The introduction of the Transgender Football League marks a progressive and meaningful step in our commitment to making football inclusive, accessible, and empowering for every individual. As a club we firmly believe that football must serve as a platform where talent is nurtured without discrimination.”

For players like Pyari Hessa, that belief is no longer just words. “When I’m playing football, it gives me immense happiness and gives me recognition. The game gives me a chance to rise above my gender identity. It gives me a platform,” Pyari says.

Life wasn’t easy for her, neither at home nor in her search for stable employment.

A Bachelor of Arts graduate, she lost her father at a young age and now lives with her mother in Jamshedpur, far from her ancestral tribal village. Before securing a job, she took on odd jobs as a daily wage worker to make ends meet. Eventually, she found employment in the logistics department of one of India’s leading steel manufacturers under their targeted hiring for under-represented groups.

More league match action between Jamshedpur FC and Chaibasa FC. Credit: Jamshedpur FC

Her tribal identity profoundly shapes her life, but as a trans woman, she faces additional layers of hardship. Traditional tribal communities in Jharkhand, rooted in customs, nature worship, and social norms, often do not accept transgender individuals with the respect they deserve, leading to exclusion, stigma, and limited family or community support.

Jharkhand is home to over 30 indigenous tribes. The culture and social position of transgender people within the tribal (Adivasi) communities here are complex and generally marked by limited traditional recognition or acceptance.

Journey From Village to Pitch

“I started playing football at ten, just like any other boy in my village. We’d kick around plastic balls on the village ground, purely for fun, nothing more,” Pyari says. “When I was in college, I met people from the trans community who played in charity and exhibition matches around Chaibasa. That’s when I realised football wasn’t just a game for me anymore—it gave me a reason to keep going and grow.”

“In those local matches, the winning trans team would get cash and be honoured. Before every game, the organisers would announce to the crowd: ‘Don’t pass gender comments, don’t disturb the players—give them the respect they deserve.’ Hearing that it felt like a small victory.”

Pyari shares these memories with a quiet pride. After winning her match on 25 January, her team triumphed 4-1 against Chaibasa FC.

According to coach Sukhlal Bhumij, who trains Pyari and the other team members, “Trans matches are being played between eight teams, and it happens every alternate Sunday and should be over by April.”

Saraikela FC (yellow) versus Indranagar FC (red) in league competition. Credit: Jamshedpur FC

Love for the Game

Football enjoys a passionate and deeply rooted following in Jharkhand, especially among its tribal communities. In rural villages, children play barefoot on open grounds from a young age, making it a daily part of life and culture. While cricket remains popular, football thrives at the grassroots level through local tournaments and has gained further momentum with Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League, where fan groups proudly celebrate tribal identity, explains Bhumij, an All India Football Federation (AIFF) C-License coach.

The sport also empowers many, particularly tribal girls and transgender players, transforming village fields into powerful spaces of pride, inclusion, and social change.

In districts like West Singhbhum, informal transgender exhibitions and charity matches have long been organised by village committees and community groups, often as one-off events, charity fundraisers, or parts of local tournaments to promote visibility and respect.

Puja Soy, one of the league’s highest scorers with seven goals from six matches, says football is finally bringing her community real recognition. The 23-year-old Jamshedpur FT standout, a professional stage dancer who completed her Class 10 education, now lives independently in Jamshedpur. Born as Shoray Soy, she moved away from her parents in DiriGoda village for her higher education and better life.

Sharing the harsh realities she faces off the pitch, Puja says, “No flat owners want to rent houses to people from our community.” Finding even this place was a struggle.” She currently shares a single-room home with another trans woman in Jamshedpur.

Jharkhand aligns its policies for transgender persons with India’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, allowing individuals to self-identify as the third gender and obtain a Certificate of Identity without mandatory medical proof. Key benefits include inclusion in the OBC category for reservations in education and government jobs, a monthly social security pension of ₹1,000 (about USD 10), dedicated transgender OPDs in government hospitals for discrimination-free care, and access to schemes such as Ayushman Bharat health insurance, scholarships, skill development programmes, and shelter support. The state has also established a Transgender Welfare Board and support unit to facilitate implementation.

However, community members say the reality on the ground differs sharply from what’s written on paper. Despite these provisions, transgender women frequently miss out on job opportunities. To survive, many resort to begging at traffic lights or highway toll points, while others turn to sex work. One player in the league, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared that she plays football during her leisure time but, lacking employment, often stands at highway toll booths or traffic signals to beg from passersby.

Begging by transgender persons has become a common sight on Indian streets and in markets—so normalised that society has largely accepted it as inevitable, even as progressive policies promise a different future.

Freedom on the Field

Back at the practice grounds of the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Pyari is ready for the evening session. Cleats laced up, ball at her feet, she looks focused.

“I can’t come for practice every day because of my shift work,” she says with a small smile. “But whenever my shift ends in the late afternoon, I make sure to come here. This is where I feel free.”

As Pyari starts dribbling, moving the ball smoothly across the turf, it feels like more than just football. With every touch and turn, she’s juggling her job, her life as a trans woman, her tribal roots, and her dreams, all in perfect rhythm, just like the way she controls the ball. In this field, everything seems to fit.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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While Beijing publicly advocates restraint, sustained tensions between the U.S. and Iran serve its strategic interests.

While restraint remains the order of the day, recent developments suggest that rival nations' maritime "red lines" are hardening.

How Beijing is encouraging entrepreneurs without giving up control.

Pakistan’s goal should not be to replace India in Bangladesh, but to foster a relationship based on sovereign equality.

Jakarta will cut trade barriers on more than 99 percent of American imports, in exchange for tariff exemptions for certain key goods.

A host of new initiatives are helping to inoculate Southeast Asia's largest nation against China’s fintech dominance.

The move came a day after Sara Duterte officially announced her intention to run for the presidency in 2028.

Chinese official statements and comments from academics reflect a clear assessment that the polls have not altered the fundamental structure of bilateral relations.

Damaturu, Yobe State, north-east of Nigeria. Credit: UN Women

By Zuzana Schwidrowski and Omolola Mary Lipede
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb 19 2026 (IPS)

Africa is home to approximately 160 million adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 (according to 2022 data by the United Nations Population Division). They embody the energy, creativity, and potential of the continent. It is undeniable that The Africa We Want, as envisioned in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, will not be realized without the full participation of this group which represents a key component of the continent’s current and future workforce.

Yet one of the most persistent obstacles to realizing this vision is the prevalence of child marriage and its devastating impact on the lives and welfare of Africa’s girls, and its negative impact on the economic potential of the continent.

Child marriage is one of the most underestimated structural constraints on Africa’s capacity to harness its demographic dividend.

Yet millions are being left behind

The statistics paint a concerning picture. According to the World Bank, four out of ten girls aged 15 to 19 in Africa (excluding North Africa) are not in school and not working, or are married or have children, compared to just slightly above one out of ten boys. On average, nearly one-third (32 percent) of young women (ages 15–24) are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), compared with 23 percent of boys in that age range (Figure 1).

In Africa, 130 million girls and women today were married before their 18th birthday, the highest incidence of globally (UNICEF, 2025). The prevalence of child marriage varies across the continent. Central and West Africa bear a disproportionate share of the global burden.

But even North Africa, with the lowest yet significant rate of child marriages, shows that this harmful practice persists across the continent (Figure 2). Moreover, nine out of ten countries with the highest incidence of child marriage are in Africa (Figure 3).

The data reflect the most recent available information for the period 2016-2023.

And economic costs are staggering

Child marriage is most frequently portrayed as a human rights violation or a social and health issue. It is. And indeed, complications from pregnancy and childbirth remain a leading cause of death for adolescent girls.

These tragic and most visible aspects, however, are only part of the story. Less visibly, but most frequently, child marriages are associated with early pregnancies and effectively exclude girls from education and formal economic participation at the very stage when investments in skills and learning yield the highest returns (Figures 4 and 5). Besides limiting individual futures, this practice thus has major economic implications for African countries and regions.

For African countries, as for some other developing countries, child marriage is a major unaddressed economic distortion. It distorts human capital accumulation and labor allocation, with economy-wide consequences for productivity and growth.

More specifically:

• Child marriage truncates education, limits skills acquisition, and impedes women’s participation in the formal labor markets
• Girls who marry early are far more likely to enter unpaid care work or low-productivity informal activities, with limited prospects for upward social mobility (Figure 6).
• Child marriage limits girls’ full integration into society by depriving them of their rights, identities, and agency. It creates dependency and stalls leadership potential.

The implications for Africa’s labor markets are particularly severe. Productive structural transformation requires a workforce that can move from low-productivity activities into higher value-added sectors, including manufacturing, modern services, and the digital economy.

When girls’ education and skills acquisition are cut short, the supply of skilled workers for these sectors is reduced. In turn, incentives of entrepreneurs to create and grow productive firms are curtailed. At the macro level, productivity growth, job creation in the formal sector, and diversification into high value-adding activities are diminished.

Economic costs of child marriages persist across generations. The practice is closely associated with early and high fertility, increased maternal morbidity and mortality, and poorer health and educational outcomes for children.

If unaddressed, these social outcomes lead to lower human capital (educational attainments and health) of the next generation, thus reducing labor productivity and innovation. Over time, they result in a persistent barrier to achieving fiscal sustainability, regional integration and inclusive growth.

These dynamics hamper Africa’s chances to seize demographic dividend. While the continent’s growing working-age population is viewed as a potential source of accelerated growth if accompanied by adequate investments in health, education, and job creation, child marriages are accompanied by reduced female employment in the formal sector (Figure 6).

Subsequently, productivity gains fall below potential and demographic opportunity risks becoming a demographic burden.

Despite the negative macroeconomic implications, child marriage is not included in the mainstream economic frameworks and discussions that inform macroeconomic planning and policies in Africa. It is typically addressed through social or legal interventions, while macroeconomic strategies, industrial policies, and fiscal frameworks proceed as if these aspects of human capital constraints were exogenous.

Such disconnect results in systematic underinvestment in one of the most binding constraints on Africa’s productive capacities.

Policymakers and the population at large need to rethink child marriage

From an economic perspective, the case for investing in girls is compelling. Analysis consistently shows that investments in girls’ education and health yield high returns, raising lifetime earnings, boosting productivity.

Under the ‘full gender equality scenario’, including closing gender gaps in education, employment, and decision-making could add up to a trillion USD to Africa’s GDP by 2043. Estimates also suggest that every dollar invested in adolescent girls’ health, education and empowerment can generate multiple dollar economic returns over time.

Translating evidence into effective policies will require a shift in approach — a one where ending child marriage is seen as a core component of Africa’s economic strategy. Indicators on adolescent girls’ education, employment, and unpaid care burdens should thus become an integral part of macroeconomic frameworks, labor market projections, and assessments of productive capacity.

Against this background, addressing the child marriage issue in Africa is a matter of economic necessity, given that successful Africa’s transformation requires unlocking the full productive potential of its population. This, in turn, demands sustained investment in girls as economic actors and not merely as beneficiaries of social programs.

Africa must finance Africa’s girls, and measures such as strengthened domestic resource mobilization, gender-responsive budgeting, and gender bonds could go a long way in this regard. Moreover, policymakers should view public spending aimed at reducing child marriages and supporting girls’ continued education as capital expenditure instead of pure social spending. This would help align fiscal frameworks with longer term growth targets.

Ending child marriage practice will not, on its own, ensure that Africa will reach its development goals. However, unless addressed, this structural barrier will continue to hamper productivity, competitiveness, and the delivery of the Agenda 2063.

Recognizing that ending child marriage is an economic as much as social imperative would be an important step forward. It would also place the girls’ empowerment where it belongs: at the center of Africa’s development strategy and its pursuit of inclusive and sustainable growth.

Zuzana Schwidrowski is the Director of Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division at the ECA and Omolola Mary Lipede Fellow in the same Division.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Elena Lazarou, Director General, ELIAMEP

The 2026 Munich Security Conference gave the sense of a forum negotiating the terms of what comes next. The tone was measured, but the subtext was unmistakable: the assumptions that underpinned three decades of relative geopolitical coherence are eroding. What replaces them remains unsettled. On the positive side, it could be an opportunity.

Three core dynamics defining Munich this year were particularly interesting: transatlantic recalibration, the rising agency of middle powers and the Global South, and the expanding definition of security itself to match the geotechnological nature of our times. These trends are not new: they echo debates and concerns from previous years, but the discussion has evolved and the participants have matured and diversified.

Transatlantic Recalibration?

There was no open rupture between Europe and the United States. Yet neither was there a return to complacency. European leaders continue to affirm NATO’s centrality, yet strategic autonomy is no longer abstract rhetoric. From defense industrial capacity to energy diversification and digital infrastructure, Europe is hedging against systemic volatility. For the United States, alliance unity remains central but increasingly framed through domestic political sustainability – and domestic competition of identity related narratives. At the same time, for the European audience, one thing is clear: burden-sharing and alignment must be reciprocal and measurable. The transatlantic relationship is indeed recalibrating. And while the point was made that partnership endures; dependency does not.

Middle Powers and the Global South: From Participants to Architects?

No one knows dependency as well as some of what we now refer to as the middle powers of the ‘Global South’. Perhaps the most striking shift in this year’s Munich was not in what Western leaders said, but in who spoke with confidence. Middle powers — India, Brazil, the Gulf states — are no longer navigating between blocs; they are shaping the environment in which blocs operate. Their diplomacy is pragmatic and transactional. Engagement is diversified. Alignment is selective. This is now referred to by pundits as ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy and is increasingly appealing to states north and south. It could be argued that it is a return to what we once simply called ‘realist’.

Voices from Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia present in the Bavarian capital underscored a structural gap (and not for the first time): global governance structures lag behind contemporary realities. Security debates emphasise defence and deterrence but still sideline debt distress, development financing, and climate vulnerability. In so doing, they do not resonate in much of the world.

For many of these countries, instability is fiscal, climatic, and demographic long before it manifests as military or territorial crises. Middle powers and Global South actors are asserting agency — and demanding that the architecture of order accommodate it.

One of the ‘quieter’ but consequential conversations focused on the intersection of development, humanitarian support, and security. Delegates from the Global South stressed that fragile states are destabilized not only by military threats, but by chronic underinvestment in infrastructure, social services, and governance. Humanitarian crises — from conflict-driven displacement to climate-induced food insecurity — are immediate pressures, but short-term aid alone cannot stabilize societies. But rather than just voicing concern, they also offered solutions, or at least proposals. An important one is that predictable development financing is preventive security. Long-term investment in education, health, energy, and infrastructure reduces the likelihood of crises escalating into broader regional instability.

On humanitarian support, experts from across the globe re-emphasized that it must complement, not replace, structural solutions. Emergency aid is essential to alleviate suffering, but without sustained development mechanisms, fragile states remain vulnerable to repeated shocks. Several voices emphasized that equitable financing, and mechanisms to address systemic vulnerabilities are critical to prevent recurring humanitarian crises. This is perhaps more important than ever, as the future of the United Nations and their reform enters the microscope – North and South. An opportunity is there, but a risk too. But the related conversations inside and outside closed doors highlighted a simple but often overlooked principle: stability is built before crises erupt, and humanitarian support is only one pillar in that architecture. Development and crisis response are inseparable in designing durable security strategies. We are focusing a lot on crises these days (in fact ELIAMEP has launched a series of events entitled precisely ‘Crises in Focus’) but we should be doing the same for the other part of security: development.

Technology and Artificial Intelligence: The accelerator?

Technology shaped nearly every conversation. Artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, digital infrastructure, and data governance are now integral to national power. Competitiveness in AI is by now established as a key source of strategic leverage, which allows states to ‘punch’ way above their size and to do so successfully. It has also changed irreversibly the nature of expertise that is required for geopolitical and foreign policy analysis, thus also becoming an important part of the conversation for the future of think tanks and policy advisory services.

Three undercurrents particularly stood out. First that technological sovereignty equals a degree of strategic autonomy: resilience in digital infrastructure is as fundamental as energy independence and military operational capacity. Second, that we stand at what is only the beginning of a major negotiation on the future of digital governance. From a European perspective, AI governance is seen as a mechanism for stability and for the upholding of fundamental human rights: without a governance framework with clear guardrails, AI-enabled disinformation, cyber disruption, and opaque military applications risk miscalculation. But to reconcile this with Mario Draghi’s urgency for global competitiveness, in a world of less or non-regulated actors, is a challenge. Finally, and related to global development, the AI divide has emerged as a strategic fault line: unequal access risks marginalizing countries and entrenching geopolitical inequality.

Details aside, the big question on everyone’s mind was: will technology set the agenda, or will it accelerate and support agenda setters?

Bringing it home: energy, connectivity and opportunities for Greece?

The Conference reaffirmed that energy and regional connectivity are central instruments of influence and security. European states are recalibrating energy sourcing, infrastructure, and cross-border supply chains to mitigate risk. Connectivity — from transport corridors to ports and digital networks — is not just economic facilitation; it is geopolitical leverage.

For Greece, these insights are particularly relevant. Its geographic position makes it a natural hub linking the Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, and Middle East. Pipelines, LNG terminals, and interconnections with regional grids enhance both diplomatic leverage and energy resilience. Port and transport projects, including Piraeus and rail networks, strengthen Greece’s role as a regional hub for trade and strategic partnerships. Diversifying energy sources and linking energy and digital infrastructure amplifies national influence and mitigates vulnerability to external shocks. Engaging in multipolar diplomacy and regional connectivity initiatives allows Greece to build flexible coalitions that advance its foreign policy objectives while supporting EU strategic autonomy. Going back to one of the initial points made, multi-vector foreign policies are not just about diversifying partners, it is also about diversifying across policy areas, to raise leverage and set the agenda in as many fields as possible.

All in all, the MSC 2026 did not produce a grand doctrine. Instead, it revealed a world in transition. The international order is not collapsing outright (or under destruction as the catchy title of this year’s MSC publication framed the question). However, it is no longer comfortably anchored. The world is indeed witnessing some of its old assumptions falter. But it is also under renegotiation, and the stakes have never been clearer.

Photo: from the Munich Security Conference 2026 website

Green, circular buildings are crucial for climate change mitigation and resource efficiency, yet their employment impact in Sub-Saharan Africa remains unclear. This paper explores green job potential in Kigali, Rwanda—an urbanizing city with strong policy commitments and urgent housing needs. Employing a sequential mixed-methods design, we conducted 33 expert interviews and surveyed 546 firms across five construction value chain segments. We find that (1) many green jobs already exist, with 5.1% highly green and about 58% partly green based on practices performed; (2) green and circular practices are emerging through both policy support and grassroots innovation, (3) greening is positively, significantly correlated with employment growth for highly green firms, and (4) greening is significantly associated with improved job quality for all firms. Targeted support for firms in critical greening phases could boost job creation and quality. A mix of interventions is required to tackle cost competitiveness, skills and attitudes.

Facing Xi Jinping across a polished Beijing conference table—less a peer than a petitioner granted audience—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that Canada was “set up well for the new world order.” The remark landed not as a strategy of trade diversification, but as a carefully choreographed kowtow, casting Canada in the obloquious role of an irritable middle power crossing the Pacific with the zeal of a court eunuch: eager to reassure an emperor while daring the prairie and Quebecer populists to absorb the snub. Carney’s January state visit to China—Canada’s first prime-ministerial foray in eight years—quickly produced headlines touting $4 billion in canola tariff relief and the announcement of a so-called ‘new strategic partnership,’ an institutionalized reset whose substance remained conspicuously thin, extending little beyond consultative dialogues and trade-facilitation committees. Yet the deeper story lay not in the press releases or handshake photos, but in the erratic motion beneath them. Canada’s foreign policy now swings like a toddler wielding scissors—so visibly that even Beijing itself declined to dignify the moment with a joint announcement. Indeed, Carney delivered the trade news alone, in a solo press appearance following the summit, a detail quietly emphasized when Global Times splashed front-page images of the Canadian prime minister speaking by himself, as if to underline who was indulging whom. The visit, then, was revealing not merely for the deals struck, but for the asymmetry it exposed: who Canada rushed to please, and whom it appeared willing to slight in exchange for short-term economic anesthesia.

Carney’s Situational Liberalism Awakens the Wrath of ‘We the Locals’ Populists in the Prairies and Quebec

In Alberta, the backlash initially assumed a sharper moral and constitutional edge—one that directly connected Ottawa’s foreign-policy posture to domestic legitimacy. Michael Kovrig, the former Canadian diplomat imprisoned in China for more than 1,000 days, warned that Carney’s Beijing visit risked squandering Canada’s hard-earned credibility on human rights. By emphasizing trade normalization while soft-pedaling issues of coercive diplomacy and political repression, Kovrig argued, Ottawa hollowed out its own claim to principled leadership, signaling that values were now negotiable when economic relief was at stake.

What Ottawa framed as pragmatic recalibration on China’s human-rights record soon collided in Alberta with long-standing anger over fiscal redistribution and energy policy, hardening a sense of alienation that fed the province’s separatist undercurrent. Weeks later, petition drives in central Alberta — including packed meetings in Red Deer — drew long lines of residents eager to sign on to a proposed independence referendum. Organizers reported strong turnout and enthusiasm, with roughly three in ten participants openly expressing support for leaving the federation altogether. The petition, if it reaches the required threshold, would force a province‑wide referendum later in the year, transforming diffuse resentment into a formal constitutional challenge

Alberta’s separatists have not limited themselves to domestic mobilization. Movement leaders have openly boasted of seeking audiences in the United States, even attempting to bend the ear of U.S. President Donald Trump and his circle to air grievances against Ottawa and to internationalize their cause. The spectacle of provincial activists shopping their complaints south of the border underscored how deeply federal authority has eroded in parts of the West. For many Alberta separatist critics, that erosion goes beyond economic decline and reflects a cumulative record of federal policy outcomes widely perceived as unfair: Alberta has been a net contributor under equalization payments since the mid‑1960s, contributing to redistribution while receiving none; pipeline conflicts culminated in the rejection of Northern Gateway (2016), the collapse of Energy East (2017), and the cancellation of Keystone XL (2021), reinforcing perceptions of federal obstruction even as Ottawa selectively intervened by purchasing and advancing Trans Mountain in 2018. Although Alberta gained three seats in the 2022 redistribution—holding 37 of 343 House seats (10.8 %) while representing roughly 11.6 % of the national population—representation debates still persist alongside ongoing economic grievances that endure even amid record oil production and profits in recent years.

Quebec’s response to Carney’s January visit to China followed a different but no less corrosive trajectory. In a January 12 social media post, Parti Québécois leader Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon denounced Carney’s “insane desire to suddenly forge an alliance with a totalitarian communist regime that already constitutes a threat to our national security, China,” while simultaneously voicing support for popular resistance against authoritarian rule elsewhere. What sovereigntist figures cast as a betrayal embedded in Carney’s China posture did not generate an entirely new grievance so much as strip the cover off a long‑simmering dispute with Ottawa over federal critical‑mineral governance—most clearly illustrated by the Barriere Lake mining case. In 2024, a Quebec court ruled that mining claims had been issued without proper consultation with the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation (Algonquins of Barriere Lake), reinforcing Quebec’s complaint that Ottawa’s drive to fast‑track critical‑mineral development routinely collides with constitutional consultation duties, legal predictability, and provincial authority over permitting.

Taken together, these provincial responses reveal the deeper consequence of Carney’s China gambit. What was presented as pragmatic liberal internationalism abroad has translated into fragmentation and suspicion at home—awakening resource localism both in the West and in Quebec. The visit exposed not just an asymmetry between Ottawa and Beijing, but a widening rift between Canada’s federal center and ‘We the locals’ it governs.

Already, Tarique Rahman has made clear that Bangladesh’s interests would guide foreign policy. China, India, and the United States are recalibrating their approaches accordingly. 

With discussions on a possible new, flexible, regional platform with Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is seeking to build backup security channels in a dynamic region.

The reconstruction of Syria lacks a solid foundation, as Ahmad Al-Sharaa and his interim government prefer to establish facts rather than a social consensus. In his victory speech, al-Sharaa promised a social contract, but protection, provision and participation are still lacking. The interim government has fallen short of its responsibility in all three areas as evidenced by a series of violence including the forceful takeover of Kurdish-dominated territory in early 2026, large-scale investments without clear benefit for Syria’s suffering population, and polarized public discourse lacking genuine commitment to pluralism and tolerance. Social rifts are deep, including within the Syrian diaspora, which also requires a minimum of trust and security – so only some members of the diaspora may choose to engage with their homeland. The international community should not remain silent over these destabilizing developments in Syria’s domestic politics.

Dem Wiederaufbau Syriens fehlt das Fundament, denn Ahmad Al-Scharaa und seine Übergangsregierung schaffen lieber Fakten als einen gesellschaftlichen Konsens. In seiner Siegesrede versprach Al-Sharaa einen Gesellschaftsvertrag, doch Schutz, Daseinsvorsorge und die Möglichkeit bürgerlicher Teilhabe lassen weiterhin zu wünschen übrig. Die Übergangsregierung ist ihrer Verantwortung in allen drei Bereichen nicht nachgekommen. Das zeigen, erstens, das wiederholte Wiederaufflammen von Gewalt, darunter die gewaltsame Übernahme des kurdisch dominierten Gebiets Anfang 2026, zweitens, die groß angelegten Investitionen ohne klaren Nutzen für die notleidende Bevölkerung und, drittens, die polarisierte öffentliche Debatte ohne echtes Bekenntnis zu Pluralismus und Toleranz. Die sozialen Gräben sind tief, auch innerhalb der syrischen Diaspora. Mangels Vertrauen und Sicherheit wird nur ein Teil der Syrer im Ausland bereit sein sich, über Rücküberweisungen hinaus, für ihr Heimatland zu engagieren. Die internationale Gemeinschaft sollte zu diesen besorgniserregenden Entwicklungen in der syrischen Innenpolitik nicht schweigen.