CULTURE, PSYCHOLOGY & MEDIA
Perception is Power in the Beijing Gavotte
Beijing senses some real relief in the way the US is handling bilateral discussions.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
EN CLAIR | Return of Free-Form Strategic Dynamics in the Middle East, Northern Tier, and Africa
Coups, as a form of “regime change”, are once again “permissible” in the greater Middle East and Africa as out-of-region powers lose traction. But then what?
Afghanistan
AUKUS: The Dysfunctional Birth and Accidental Promise of the West’s New Global Alliance
Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States hastily created a new global alliance, but its founders have different views of alliance priorities. AUKUS might actually work, but the US seems intent on jeopardizing Red Sea security, critical to making the bloc work.
GOVERNANCE & ELECTIONS
Global Trends: Lostpolitik
Germany’s 2021 elections accelerated the leadership vacuum in the European Union and its growing strategic irrelevance, but equally highlighted the tentative rise of a new global power framework …
STRATEGIC PHILOSOPHY
EARLY WARNING | We Have Met the Enemy…
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
The New “Go” Complexity of the Global “Great Game”
The chess-board of Central Asia’s “Great Game” was transformed into the intense complexity of the ancient Chinese game of Go — Weiqi — when the collapse of the latest phase of the eternal Afghan wars sent the consequences virally through global security frameworks.
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
STRATEGIC TRAJECTORIES | New AUKUS Alliance Constrains Beijing; Transforms Indo-Pac
The AUKUS Alliance starts the process of the US ceding back to Britain some of its historical maritime presence.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
CURRENT ESTIMATE | Afghanistan’s Centrality to the PRC, Russia, and India
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
EN CLAIR | Cold War Redux: The West Loses Africa’s Horn
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
ESSENTIAL READING | On Intimate Terms With History
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
ESSENTIAL READING | Conquering History
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
The Ardeshir Zahedi Interview: Lessons of Diplomacy for the 21st Century
Few diplomats in the 20th Century were as active or influential as Iran’s Ardeshir Zahedi, who remains active while living — and writing — from exile in Montreux, Switzerland.