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Map lines are inherently political. After all, they’re representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world where multiple nations often share the same maps. Trump’s geographic renaming plans leave mapmakers pondering what to do next.

The breakaway republic of Transnistria has been plunged into an energy crisis following the end of Ukrainian transit of Russian gas. If it is Kyiv and not Moscow that comes to the unrecognized statelet’s aid, Russia risks losing any remaining influence in the region.

With the lightning success of the 11-day offensive by the Islamist faction Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and other rebel groups and the fall of the Assad regime, a new question comes to the fore. Will a Syrian transitional government, backed by Turkey, accept the Kurdish-led autonomous zone in the northeast of the country?

And strangely enough, it means China and the Philippines have traded positions.

In October, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his country would transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia, one of the islands, hosts a US military base and is at the center of the internationally lauded yet highly contentious agreement.

5 takeaways from the surprise election results in Catalonia, where the separatist dream suffered a setback.

In 2023, the world around de facto states and secessionist entities became more and more unstable. As the power structures that have sustained many of these entities “unfreeze,” windows of opportunity opened for changing the status quo on the ground - changes mostly pursued through force.

What is stopping China from invading Taiwan? In the past, it was overdetermined that Beijing would not use force to compel reunification. Today, however, the military balance of power has shifted decisively. It is now something of a conventional wisdom that a Chinese invasion has become more likely than not.

Some of the people who were forced to leave Ukraine after the Russian invasion have fled to Transnistria. Why are Ukrainians seeking sanctuary in a de facto state that receives financial and military support from Russia, and what is their status there?

It’s a tough sell. Tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs who live and work in Kosovo but stubbornly reject the country’s official currency have a week to ditch the dinar in their daily lives.

A large share of Transnistria’s economy, including most of its budget, depends on a structural subsidy it receives from Russia in the form of free gas. As Ukraine has promised to stop all Russian pipelines going through its territory by the end of 2024, how will Transnistria cope?

For years to come, its violent dissolution will loom large in the Armenian consciousness and reverberate across other majority-minority conflicts around the globe.