Since 2022, India and Russia have settled most of their bilateral trade in rupees, which has left Russian banks holding large rupee balances with nowhere obvious to put them. This paper looks at why those balances keep growing, why the usual economic fixes do not apply here, and whether channeling some of that money through high-value jewelry…

Abstract
Afghanistan's humanitarian emergency is among the most complex and protracted crises in the contemporary international system, affecting over 23 million people through acute food insecurity, mass displacement, economic collapse, and environmental stress. This article analyses Afghanistan's humanitarian landscape through the Humanitarian…

Afghanistan's persistent underdevelopment is widely misattributed to inherent state fragility, obscuring the role of successive foreign interventions in dismantling the country's institutional and developmental foundations. This article argues that the geopolitical instrumentalization of Afghanistan by competing external powers produced the structural…

On 10 June 2026, Narendra Modi became the longest-serving elected Prime Minister in Indian history. Having governed continuously since 26 May 2014, he completed 4,399 days in office, surpassing Jawaharlal Nehru’s 4,398 days as an elected leader—a record that had stood for over seventy years. The distinction matters: Nehru’s total tenure was…

The U.S.-Iranian relationship has been antagonistic, marked by hostility, sanctions, proxy wars and distrust for over four decades. The conflict between Washington and Tehran has been a determining force in Middle Eastern strategy, ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and right up to the nuclear standoffs of the twenty first century. However…

The NATO Summit to be held in Ankara in 2026 represents a critical meeting that will reopen the debate on Turkey’s position within the Alliance. This summit should not be regarded merely as one of NATO’s routine diplomatic meetings that sets the Alliance’s agenda. It will also serve as a platform through which Turkey’s place in the Western…

The Mind-First Age: The global economy is entering a Mind-First Age where the physicality of work is increasingly transferred to robotics, while the mentality of performance becomes the defining measure of productivity. Across industries, human value is shifting away from repetitive labor toward judgment, adaptation, creativity, and execution. In such…

Artemis in the Goddess Temple, Excalibur at Chalice Well, and Cerridwen in Tintagel Parish Church — Cornwall is one of those rare places where magic happens; and where geopolitics, history, mythology, and cultural memory seamlessly converge. A place of profound historical significance within Europe’s collective memory, while simultaneously…

A Colossus with Feet of Clay
With a 1.6-point increase in vote share, the Labour party more than doubled its electoral results in the 2024 general election, obtaining a landslide victory with a majority of 411 MPs. The Labour electoral success is undeniable; however, these very results actually suggest that this triumph is a colossus with feet of…

Author: Vitaliy Senotrusov – Master’s degree student, Faculty of World Economic and International Affairs HSE University (Moscow)
Over the past few decades, environmental degradation has become one of the most pressing issues confronting the People's Republic of China, coinciding with its rapid economic expansion and industrial…

Alisa Chadenkova – Master’s degree student, Faculty of World Economic and International Affairs HSE University (Moscow), 
Khan Muhammad Ikram – Master’s degree student, Faculty of World Economic and International Affairs HSE University (Moscow),
Anton Muftakhov – Master’s degree student, Faculty of World Economic…

Author: Wireko Derrick Adu-Gyamfi – Master’s degree student, Faculty of World Economic and International Affairs, HSE University (Moscow)
Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson challenged Marxist expectations of nationalism, arguing that nationalism is not a political ideology but a cultural construct, influenced by historical processes…