Dominion: Trump’s new grand strategy?
With Donald Trump only days away from being sworn into what will likely be the most “imperial” of US presidencies since Franklin D.
Zero evidence: the bogus ‘intelligence’ behind Romania’s cancelled election
On 6 December 2024 Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) cancelled the country’s presidential election while runoff voting was already underway in the diaspora.
The fall of Assad: four and a half implications
History is not merely on the move again – as we have become used to saying in response to the great succession of extraordinary political and military events since about…
“Saving” the state by breaking the law? A Roman warning
The notion that in affairs of state the ends justify the means long predates the writings of Machiavelli, the figure most identified with this idea.
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Democracy dies in impunity: the necessity of drastic electoral punishment
Political impunity is harming democracy by allowing establishment parties to persist despite failures.
Calin Georgescu just blitzed Romanian politics: will his formula spread?
Never in the history of liberal democracy anywhere – let alone in the Western camp – has a candidate shot from quasi-total obscurity straight to first place in a presidential…
Will Ukraine become Europe’s forever-problem?
As the war reached its 1000th day this week, any form of victory seems further away from Kyiv’s grasp than ever before. Militarily, Ukraine’s situation is dramatic;
Europe’s choice: win with Trump or “die” alone
“Man’s soul is immortal, his salvation is in the next world,” Cardinal Richelieu once said; “the state has no immortality, its salvation is now or never.
Political polarisation and US foreign policy
As the United States begins to emerge from a critical election, the weight of domestic polarisation is more than a national issue: it is a force with profound implications…
The case for geopolitical optimism
There is no question that the world is spinning out of control, hurtling towards the catastrophe of major power war – which would likely see nuclear exchanges.
How to fix the world: the elements of global stability
The world has destabilised to a very large degree, very quickly. It is now riven with conflict and war.
Stopping Russia might take more than ‘offering’ peace
With Ukraine’s situation becoming increasingly precarious, it is time to confront, head-on, the most dangerous of the many illusions entertained by the Western strategic…
To see what Putin’s 2022 invasion means, look to 1494
The French invasion of Italy in 1494 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although divided by centuries, bear uncanny parallels.
Five reasons why Israel’s 7-front war is so hard to win
Over the past three weeks Israel has delivered an exceptional masterclass in intelligence-led military operations.
The key to Ukraine is in Beijing
President Zelensky has a new “victory plan,” which he has brought with him on his visit to the United States this week.
The missiles of September
The missile story that gripped Western attention last week is very revealing for the state of our “strategic” thinking.
Three old military ‘truths’ shaken by the Ukraine war
Conventional wisdom often gets a bad rap when things go wrong, but it should normally be a source of strength.
Peace requires strength, but also diplomacy
When Ronald Reagan ran for president of the United States in 1980, he put “peace through strength” at the heart of his foreign policy vision.
Can Europe defend itself ‘without’ the US?
The prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency and, in particular, his recent pick of JD Vance as vice-presidential candidate have further increased the sense of alarm within…
The meaning of Trump’s epic brush with death
Crooks failed to kill Trump, despite giving it their (sorry, his) best shot.
The end of ideological politics and the return to empire
These days election after general election only seems to confirm one thing: that ideological politics is dead, and with it, the modern era of politics, full stop. What?
The Soviet mirror and the pitfalls of historical analogy
Questions of “identity” consume the present generation more than any others past.
Blueprint for US defence policy under a second Trump administration
As the opinion polls continue to favour a presidential comeback for Donald Trump at the November elections, the question of what he would actually do in his second term of…
Hard Centrism: Preparing Europe’s ‘third way’ by 2029
With the 2024 EU elections now concluded, it is time to start planning for Europe’s true turning point: the next electoral round, in 2029. There is not a moment to lose.
Europe’s era of chaos is only just beginning
Most great political revolutions in history take years, even more than a decade to unfold fully.
The European election revolt is real, but is it sustainable?
The emerging picture from the 2024 European Parliament elections seems to confirm earlier predictions of significant but not decisive “hard Right” gains.
Europe’s global strategy is an afterthought in this election
As voters across the EU head for the polling stations in the coming days to elect their MEPs, it is issues to do with their daily life experience that will likely be uppermost…
Insufficient destruction is why no one wins wars anymore
“War is Hell”, William Tecumseh Sherman said in 1879, looking back on his years campaigning against the Confederacy during America’s Civil War.
After Raisi: history’s most consequential sudden political deaths
The unexpected demise of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi, stoned to death with a mountain by the grace of a US-made helicopter, has opened up speculation as to the political…
The seven deadly contradictions of the Ukraine war
We owe one of the most insightful observations about human reasoning to F. Scott Fitzgerald.