Paraguay is a landlocked country with no oil, no gas, and no coastline, so it has built its leverage another way, by selling electricity and through diplomatic strategy. But why does Paraguay exist to begin with, and what does it have to offer the rest of the world?
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Why does Guatemala claim half of Belize?
Guatemala claims about half the land in neighboring Belize, plus all of its islands, in one of the few live territorial disputes in Latin America today. The International Court of Justice is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case in February 2027, the last stage before a ruling that could result in dramatic border changes. But why does Guatemala claim so much of Belize to begin with, and how does it shape the region's geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy has Javier Milei changed things for Argentina?
How did Javier Milei go from a TV news pundit to the president of Argentina? And what impact has he had on his country’s geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreWhy does Colombia’s geography dictate its dynamics?
Colombia may be a single country on paper, but in reality its geography makes it extremely difficult to govern as one. Notoriously, the country is full of militant groups, gangs, drugs, and a polarized political environment, and geography can explain why this is the case more than almost anything else. So how exactly does Colombia’s geography dictate its fate?
Read MoreWhy are the Falkland Islands disproportionately important to geopolitics?
in Latin America, Europe
Just 3600 people live on these islands today, but in the 1980s they were the site of a war that killed 255 British military members and 649 Argentine troops and fundamentally changed modern naval doctrine. The Falkland Islands are famous for this namesake war, but you’re probably not aware of the rest of their dynamics. So how do the Falklands influence geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy has Ecuador become the most dangerous country in Latin America?
From 2019 to 2025, Ecuador went from one of Latin America’s safest countries to one of its most violent, with roughly 8x more homicides now than there were before. It’s seen one of the sharpest upticks in kidnapping and extortion, and even with US security support the country has not managed to stabilize. So what exactly happened to make Ecuador so dangerous, and what impact has this had on Latin America’s geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreHow has Venezuela changed since Maduro was captured?
In the pre-dawn hours of 3 January 2026, the US launched a military strike on Venezuela, bombing the country’s air defenses and ultimately capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife on narco-terrorism and drug charges. Shortly after, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was publicly sworn in as acting president, and US oil companies began moving in. But what exactly is going on in Venezuela today, and how has the country changed since Maduro was removed from office?
Read MoreHow has Mexico changed under its first woman president?
Mexico’s first woman president, a climate scientist named Claudia Sheinbaum, took office in 2024 after a landslide election, just months before a geopolitical development that radically changed its regional environment. That development, of course, was the most recent US presidential election, which resulted in unprecedented tariffs, migration issues, threats against Mexican territory, and instability that have driven much of Sheinbaum’s strategic rationale. So how and why did Sheinbaum become Mexico’s president, and how has she navigated such an uncertain geopolitical environment?
Read MoreWhy is Suriname one of South America’s strangest countries?
In 1667, the Dutch and the English signed a treaty that traded one piece of land for another. The English kept a swampy little outpost we now call Manhattan. The Dutch kept a sliver of South American coast that they considered the better deal. It’s called Suriname, and 350 years later that piece of land hosts roughly 750m barrels of recoverable oil, a Chinese-owned gold mine, the highest proportion of Muslims of any country in the Americas, and the political afterlife of a criminal dictator. So with all that in mind, how does Suriname fit into geopolitics today?
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