STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Assessing Long-Term Threats and Trends
The most important, least invested, security priority
GOVERNANCE & ELECTIONS
UK Strategic Recovery: A Long and Winding Road
How will Keir Starmer's resignation change the UK’s strategic direction? And, if so, in what way, and when?
DIPLOMACY, ALLIANCES & TREATIES
Xi Jinping in Pyongyang: The Tumult and the Shouting Dies
Xi Jinping hoped to rebuild his fortunes with his visit to North Korea, and state visits from Trump and Putin, but there is a real sense of emptiness after all the fanfare.
HISTORY
ESSENTIAL READING | Back to the Cold War Age of Spies...
The author of the 2026 book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War, Sean Wiswesser, spent three decades as an officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), locked in covert combat with the three Russian intelligence services (RIS).
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Beijing Bid to Move Beyond the First Island Chain Marked by a Major Failure
The Solomons situation is a significant one for the broader strategic framework and how it plays out over the coming two-plus years.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
The Evaporation of Victory: How the US-Iran Deal Saw US Dreams Become Elusive
US President Trump has, it seems, opted to “declare victory and go home” from the war he began with Iran. And, unless toppled by the Iranians themselves, the autocrats suppressing Iran remain in power.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Is North Korea in Play?
Just as the West did not want to believe the old Cold War was over, and its players changed, so it does not wish to consider North Korea a non-communist state. But it truly may be. What is it, and how can the strategic equation now be re-evaluated?
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
Homayoun’s 2003 Approach to Ending Clerical Control of Iran
This assessment of the Iranian problem was given to US policymakers in 2003. Why was it never considered by Washington in the planning to resolve the challenge?
STRATEGIC PHILOSOPHY
EARLY WARNING | We Seek Victory, But What Does It Look Like?
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
STRATEGIC TRAJECTORIES | Xi-Trump: Tactical Goals Met; Strategic Trajectory Unchanged
The overarching strategic US-PRC trajectory seems largely unchanged: the PRC in continued decline and the US in continued strategic consolidation. US allies are making separate plans to manage their strategic space to a greater degree.
STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE
STRATEGIC TRAJECTORIES | Beijing’s Rear-Guard Action to Shore Up Strategic Influence in Eswatini
Beijing, having failed to change the Government of Eswatini, has begun operations to dominate the country’s commercial and political sectors. However, its decline in influence through Africa and the rest of the world is now becoming significant as its signature Belt and Road Initiative falls apart.
SECURITY, UNREST & WAR
World War III: The Soft Launch
Everything is connected, and it’s starting to become clear with the US strategic operations.