Regional institutions have a mixed record. The Organization of American States lacks the ability to get much done given its requirement for consensus and the lack of military and economic resources at its disposal. The Lima Group, formed by a dozen countries in the region to promote a peaceful outcome in Venezuela, has yet to demonstrate it has

Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, one of the dominant features of European history was the ascension of Britain to a position of global primacy as a result of its strong economy, trade links, access to raw materials and markets through its colonies, and globe-spanning navy. This primacy arguably lasted until the mid- to late nineteenth

Bangladesh is often overlooked but should not be. It is a more important country than Pakistan in terms of global trade. Bangladesh is second only to China when it comes to exports of ready-made garments; U.S. trade with Bangladesh is greater than its trade with Pakistan. It is deeply embedded within European companies’ supply chains and with many

One difference that continues to animate the dynamics of many regions is religion. No religion claims a majority of the world’s people. Nearly a third of the world’s population, or 2.3 billion people, are Christians, while close to a quarter of humanity, 1.8 billion people, are Muslims. Just over 1 billion are Hindus, nearly 500 million are

In Germany, the Depression was the final nail in the coffin of the Weimar Republic. Germany needed loans to pay its reparations, but once the Depression hit, its funding dried up and hyperinflation ensued as the government printed more money in a desperate effort to come up with the funds to repay what it owed. The collapse of the Weimar Republic

The UN is further weakened by the reality that the Security Council no longer represents the balance of power in the world; if it did, Japan, India, and Germany (or the European Union) would have a permanent seat. Bringing about such change is close to impossible because there is no agreement among the five permanent members of the Security Council

Appeasement reached its height (or, some might say, depth) in Europe in the late 1930s. Hitler sought to gain living space (lebensraum) for “Aryan” Germans of European or Indo-European descent who would assert their “mastery” over “inferior” races. Breaking out of constraints imposed by the Versailles Treaty, Germany withdrew from the League of

It is home to Canada and the United States, which are the second- and third-largest countries in the world as measured by landmass. Both are slightly larger than China but each is roughly half the size of Russia, which spans eleven time zones and is by far the world’s largest country.

It should be added that sovereignty can also be voluntarily constrained or even ceded or delegated. This, for example, is what countries do inside the European Union, where they pool their sovereignty, allowing the EU’s various organs to make decisions that affect them. Other countries do something similar in the World Trade Organization.