IN-DEPTH: Macron’s Troubles: Are Beijing, Moscow Fanning Violent Unrest in the Pacific?

Azerbaijan—at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia—has a long-running dispute with France, but has no history or strategic interest in the Pacific. Yet it has been accused of pouring fuel onto the fire of independence movements in French territories across the region. Is it just anti-French animus, or is someone else adding sparks to the fire? The idea that the recent uprising in New Caledonia—which has seen cars and buildings burned, roadblocks across the capital Nouméa, and six deaths to date—is being fuelled by anything other than the ongoing struggle of native Kanak people for independence from France may seem to belong in the shadowy corner of the internet reserved for conspiracy theories....