2025 was a yr of massive shifts, at occasions pushed by singular personalities. U.S. President Donald Trump involves thoughts, in fact. However so do the officers who encompass him—and the world leaders who’re adjusting to a shifting world order in his wake.
In Germany, a longtime senior political determine grew to become chancellor and sought to make the nation extra of a drive on the world stage. In Hungary and Venezuela, opposition leaders gained steam that might carry main change in 2026. And in Iran, a filmmaker gained world approval for a film made in secret, which captures the evolution of a society that leaves little room for freedom.
2025 was a yr of massive shifts, at occasions pushed by singular personalities. U.S. President Donald Trump involves thoughts, in fact. However so do the officers who encompass him—and the world leaders who’re adjusting to a shifting world order in his wake.
In Germany, a longtime senior political determine grew to become chancellor and sought to make the nation extra of a drive on the world stage. In Hungary and Venezuela, opposition leaders gained steam that might carry main change in 2026. And in Iran, a filmmaker gained world approval for a film made in secret, which captures the evolution of a society that leaves little room for freedom.
Under are 5 of Overseas Coverage’s most illuminating profiles of the yr.
1. Germany’s New Nineties Chancellor
By Alexander Clarkson, Feb. 20
Germany’s election in February paved the best way for Friedrich Merz, a senior determine within the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to turn out to be chancellor after years within the political wilderness. Merz has since claimed a number one position on the world stage, projecting a extra assertive Germany.
Merz drew outrage quickly after the election for saying that he would go “all in” and vote with the far-right Different for Germany (AfD) get together in favor of harsh immigration measures. However, as educational Alexander Clarkson writes on this profile, critics didn’t see that Merz “instinctively understood” how you can win over the CDU’s conservative factions.
To understand how Merz acquired right here, Clarkson writes, it helps to look again on the political period that formed him—and to the non-public resentment he holds for former Chancellor Angela Merkel. His technique could pose dangers in the long term, nevertheless it has gotten him this far.
“Merz’s repudiation of the centrist method that outlined the Merkel years attracted assist from get together members who believed {that a} pivot to cultural conservatism would forestall right-wing voters from shifting their assist to the AfD,” Clarkson writes.
2. The Metternich of the Bronx
By Adrian Karatnycky, June 20
Among the many extra unconventional figures shaping U.S. overseas coverage in Trump’s second time period is Steve Witkoff, a former New York actual property lawyer-turned-property developer who has discovered himself negotiating for peace in Ukraine.
Analyst Adrian Karatnycky traces Witkoff’s first few months of diplomacy, as success in securing a cease-fire and hostage launch within the Israel-Hamas struggle led to an expanded portfolio and a de facto position as envoy to Russia.
With Moscow, Karatnycky writes, Witkoff shifted gears: “As an alternative of working in shut cooperation with U.S. authorities consultants, he ran what was primarily a one-man present. Controversially, he averted important engagement with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow or the State Division again in Washington.”
Months later, Witkoff stays a newsmaker, clashing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over how you can deal with peace efforts in Ukraine because the yr involves a detailed.
3. The Man Who Might Topple Orban
By Lili Rutai, Nov. 7
Hungary holds parliamentary elections subsequent April, and the polls usually are not wanting good for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has dominated the nation for 15 years. The candidate trying to unseat the strongman, opposition chief Peter Magyar, was as soon as a member of Orban’s Fidesz get together. In only a yr, he has turn out to be the nation’s hottest politician.
Hungarian journalist Lili Rutai captures the persona behind this shift, who acknowledges the uphill battle he faces in opposition to a frontrunner who has cracked down on civil society and the press. In November, Magyar drew 170,000 individuals to the streets of Budapest—roughly twice as many as Orban’s personal march the identical day.
“Whether or not Orban will maintain a good election in opposition to Magyar, and let go of energy if he loses, could decide the way forward for democracy in Hungary,” Rutai writes.
Magyar compares his supporters to the Hungarians who fought the Ottoman army centuries in the past. “Amongst us are younger and previous individuals, residing in Budapest, the agricultural areas, within the motherland or overseas—who’re preventing for his or her homeland and for the way forward for their youngsters and grandchildren,” he advised Rutai.
4. The Voice of Venezuela’s Opposition
By Mie Hoejris Dahl, Nov. 13
María Corina Machado at a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2024.Alfredo Lasry R through Getty Pictures
On Oct. 10, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition chief who went into hiding final yr, following the disputed presidential election during which Nicolás Maduro once more claimed victory.
Machado was barred from working in that election, however journalist Mie Hoejris Dahl adopted Machado as she campaigned for her substitute, Edmundo González, in July 2024. Dahl presents a compelling portrait of Machado, as soon as dismissed as a fringe politician, and her combat for democracy. Even those that don’t at all times agree along with her admit that Machado has been uniquely unifying for these against Maduro.
On “the marketing campaign path, it was clear that the nation had modified since my earlier visits, when Venezuelans spoke about politics solely in whispers—or under no circumstances,” Dahl writes.
Machado, who appeared in Oslo to obtain the Nobel this month after sneaking out of Venezuela by boat, has lately stirred controversy for saying that she helps a U.S. army intervention to oust Maduro. (She devoted her award to Trump.) Dahl’s profile captures the intangible causes that Machado will doubtless proceed shaping world affairs in 2026.
5. Jafar Panahi Has His Eyes on the Future
By Amir Ahmadi Arian, Dec. 19
It Was Simply an Accident, the primary movie from Iranian director Jafar Panahi since he was launched from jail in 2023, is now a significant Oscar contender. It gained the Palme d’Or at Cannes in Might, cementing Panahi as one of the vital celebrated residing filmmakers. “But to many Iranians, Panahi is called a lot for his defiance as for his cinema,” Iranian creator Amir Ahmadi Arian writes.
Panahi’s newest work, which follows a bunch of prisoners who kidnap the interrogator who tortured them, is deeply private. “Making movies is the one factor I understand how to do. Aside from that, I used to be additionally looking for a strategy to set up the chaos in my head, to offer form to all of the ideas and emotions I carried with me out of jail,” the director advised Arian.
In his profile of Panahi, Arian places this movie within the context of his total physique of labor, which is thought for resisting mainstream conventions. He finds that, taken collectively, these movies chart not solely the director’s private evolution but additionally the evolution of Iran itself—culminating with a portrait of a rustic reshaped by the 2022 Girl, Life, Freedom motion.
It Was Simply an Accident is a “extra formidable chapter from a filmmaker who has spent three a long time testing the boundaries of cinema and the boundaries of expression,” Arian writes.
