In the Central African Republic (CAR), outside the capital Bangui, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra exerts little to no authority. Armed rebel groups control two-thirds of the country, including access to mining sites.

When it comes to wealth transfer, Nigerian Pentecostal churches prefer to keep it all in the family.  

Prime Minister Abe today announced that he was placing seven regions of Japan, Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa, and Chiba, as well as Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka under a stat…

Within two weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies have collectively imposed a series of sanctions to isolate Russia’s financial system. Recent stringent Western sanctions are a stress test of Russia’s de-dollarization initiatives and an emerging nondollar financial system. Besides de-SWIFTing Russian banks, Western sanctions have targeted the assets of the Russian central bank and sovereign wealth funds, the Russian Ministry of Finance, and Russian oligarchs. These punitive measures effectively wiped out the thirty-year post-Cold War Western financial engagement with Russia. I have discussed a Russia-China de-dollarization partnership in the Foreign Affairs article titled The Anti-Dollar Axis. It seems that Putin’s Russia has more partners for de-dollarization in Asia, such as India.