Tech & Industry
Who writes the code rules the world
Software is becoming the world’s quiet constitution. This essay shows how control over code, data, and infrastructure is reshaping power — and what that means for everyday life.
Energy & Resources
Chokepoint diplomacy: how China turned minerals into leverage
China’s new export controls on key minerals are both retaliation and long-term strategy. As the U.S. and its allies scramble to secure supply, Beijing is shaping a new world order through the politics of resource dependence.
Tech & Industry
Token borders: when crypto becomes a tool of sovereignty
Crypto promised freedom from the state. Instead, it has become a new frontier of state power. Across the Global South, digital currencies and token systems are redefining what sovereignty means in a fractured financial world.
Energy & Resources
Copper wars: Latin America’s race to wire the green transition
Copper is the quiet force behind the energy transition. From Chile to Peru, the metal that wires the future is now reshaping global power itself.
Geopolitics & Power
Power Transit: The New U.S.–India–Gulf Triangle
The U.S.–India–Gulf corridor was billed as a new trade spine linking Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Two years later, war, rivalry, and shifting alliances have exposed its limits, and revealed how connectivity itself has become a front in global power politics.
Geopolitics & Power
BRICS and the illusion of unity: multipolarity with cracks at the core
BRICS pitches itself as the future of a multipolar order. But beneath the solidarity brand are real fractures: India–China rivalry, Russia’s dependence, and diverging economic aims. Multipolarity is here; unity is not.
Geopolitics & Power
France’s African retreat: who fills the vacuum?
France’s post-colonial footprint is shrinking fast, from the Sahel to the coast. Paris calls it a reset; juntas call it sovereignty. As Russia, Turkey, Gulf money, and China move in, the real test is whether anything replaces the parts that worked: intelligence, logistics, and state capacity.
Climate & Sustainability
Climate before blocs: Pacific states chart their own course
At the Pacific Islands Forum, leaders sidelined both Washington and Beijing to focus on climate and cooperation. The Pacific shows how even small states can resist bloc politics — and why that matters in a fractured world.
Geopolitics & Power
Fracture, not collapse: the return of geopolitics
Globalization hasn’t collapsed—it has fractured. Trade flows still grow, but under new political terms. Chatham House calls it “reglobalization.” Blocs are forming, swing states are hedging, and geopolitics is back at the center of economic life.
Geopolitics & Power
India’s Balancing Act
Modi’s visit to Tianjin for the SCO summit was more than optics. It underlined India’s strategy of poly-alignment, balancing China, Russia, and the West while navigating fragile borders and rising expectations.
Geopolitics & Power
Europe’s Quiet Defense Rearmament in a Fragmenting World
Europe is quietly rearming. Russia’s war in Ukraine and U.S. hostility are forcing the EU to rethink security, sovereignty, and solidarity. This is more than budgets, it is reshaping European identity in a fragmented world.
Geopolitics & Power
China’s Soft Power Plateau?
China may be plateauing in Western perception, but in the Global South, energy, infrastructure, and trade outreach still build influence. Here’s why soft power is now two-tiered.