Political Geography Now

From a couple months ago, but still mostly accurate

Free Article: Recent gains and losses by South Yemen separatists in Yemen's mainland are well documented - but what about the island province of Socotra, which had the most at stake with the UAE's withdrawal from the country? We did a deep dive into online sources to puzzle out the complicated situation on the archipelago.

And here's the second installment in our renewed Yemen control map series for subscribers, bringing our coverage up to February 2026, with southern separatists having badly lost their gambit for independence (article published Feb. 8, with map certified accurate up to Feb. 18).

As you may know, territorial control in Yemen has become a hot topic again over the past couple months, after a few years of essentially no changes to control lines. Here's the link for the first of PolGeoNow's two new Yemen control map reports for subscribers, showing the situation at the height of South Yemen separatist control at the end of 2025.

Our popular "How many countries are there in the world?" explainer has been updated for 2026!

As promised! Here's our new subscriber map of control in Syria AFTER the fall of Assad, including territory newly under Israel and so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS/ISIL). Plus handy timeline of events amid this seismic shift in Syrian geopolitics.

We've published a new update to our Ukraine war control map series for paid subscribers, showing what parts of Ukraine were controlled by Russia in February 2024, plus timeline of events since the previous October.

We've updated and majorly revised our classic explainer on the geography of "Olympic Nations"! Learn which countries are in the Olympics, which are shut out, and which "Nations" aren't independent countries!

Last month's subscriber update to our map-illustrated Israel/Palestine territorial control report.

And here's the current update to our Sudan control map, which is free for all readers!

For our subscribers: Detailed map and report on territorial control in Sudan's civil war in December 2023 and January 2024.

New free article! Since two years ago, Turkey's government wants you to call it "Türkiye". Check out our plain English guide to what happened and why, how it started, and how it's going.

The map is still basically correct today, pending the possible Israeli offensive on Rafah.

Free sample of our Ukraine map report series, which we'll be bringing back up to date soon.