WORLD ROUNDUPIran’s Revolutionary Guards | How America Lost the Arctic | BRICS: An Expanding Alternative, and more

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards  (CFR.org Editors, CFR)
The IRGC is one of the most powerful organizations in Iran, conceived as the principal defender of the 1979 revolution, and now a critical link to Islamist militant groups violently opposed to Israel and the United States.

The BRICS Summit 2024: An Expanding Alternative  (CFR)
The BRICS (whose membership has grown from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates) is an unusual community that does not bear the hallmarks of a traditional international institution. So far, it is a rather amorphous club with a single unifying principle: creating a space for interaction that bypasses Western states and institutions.

How America Lost the Arctic  (Elizabeth Buchanan, National Interest)
The Arctic’s era of “high north, low tension” is over, and Washington may be underprepared for the region’s shifting dynamics. Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Arctic cooperation ceased, allowing Moscow to pivot toward China and India, expanding supply routes and regional influence.

BRICS+ Doesn’t Have to Be the “Rest Against the West”  (Adam Gallagher, National Interest)
With the multilateral system in shambles and geopolitical tensions rising, the United States should think seriously about how to deal with today’s multipolar world.