The 2026 Iran crisis exposed deepening strains in the US-South Korea alliance. When the Trump administration requested Seoul to deploy naval assets to the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, South Korea refused. President Trump publicly criticized Seoul, stating “South Korea didn’t help us” despite the 28,500 US troops…

China spent decades trying to limit its population. Now it appears the great power is combating it’s decline. The population has been shrinking since 2022, and by 2030, it is estimated that one in four Chinese citizens will be over the age of 60. The fertility rate has also plunged to just1 child per woman, which is far below the replacement level…

Do you know who has been roaming around your office over the last few months? Don’t worry, it’s just AI: it is already fully familiar with your corner office. Today, across the bureaucracies of the free world, every corner office occupied by senior government officials, including their positions and expected responsibilities, falls under AI’s…

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…