The 2024 Republican Party Platform in the United States reveals much about the direction Donald Trump’s foreign policy would take if he were re-elected. His words and past behavior, paint a sobering picture that is tinged by right-wing ideology.

Can an assassination attempt improve a candidate’s chances of winning an election? Taiwan’s experience suggests that it might. During its 2004 presidential election, polls showed then-President Chen Shui-bian trailing his opponent, Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) candidate Lien Chan. But this changed abruptly the day before the vote, when Chen and Vice President Annette Lu were shot during an election rally.

No matter who ultimately wins the election in November, only minor adjustments to competition with China at the tactical level are likely to occur. The competitive essence will not change. It’s a Cold War-style outcome that may make bilateral cooperation more difficult.

Some sharp contrasts, as well as broad similarities, between the two major European countries’ political environments were revealed by the latest elections. They are likely to be a shaping force in geopolitics.

Given the many views of its members — which often do not align — deciding which path to take and how that process works are of fundamental importance to the international organization’s existence and operation.

Within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the need to transform into a constructive force for regional peace, stability, prosperity and development aligns with the need for development, now and in the future.

A shift to the right has plunged leaders of major EU countries into a trust crisis that threatens to undermine the consensus between Europe and China on major global issues, such as climate change, globalization and world peace.

Tunisia’s location on the Mediterranean Sea has lent itself to close ties with Europe over many decades, but President Kais Saied seems to be spurning the West now in favor of currying favor with China.

While China and the United States are the most important external stakeholders on the Korean Peninsula, Russia has focused more on its strategic interests in the region out of concern over security issues in Europe. To achieve enduring peace, communication must resume under the multilateral framework of the Six-Party Talks.

The transformations spurred by the election are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. This year’s contest was less dramatic than earlier ones and the outcomes were more incremental.