Middle East

The Horn of Africa is being reordered by overlapping disputes: the contested international status of Somaliland, an unresolved confrontation between Ethiopia and its northern and downstream neighbours, and the uneven reconstruction of the Somali state. Outside powers -- Israel, Turkey, Egypt, the Gulf states, the United States and China -- are all party to at least one of them.

The South Caucasus -- Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia -- at the intersection of Russian, Turkish, Iranian and Euro-Atlantic interests. The region carries several unresolved disputes: the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict centred on Nagorno-Karabakh, the question of Armenia's alignment between the Russian-led blocs and the European Union, the status of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, transit corridors across the region, and competition among external powers over influence, energy routes and security ties. It has seen repeated wars, including the Nagorno-Karabakh wars and the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.