Neutrality Studies

Originally published on 19 Jun 2025. Today I’m talking to Sebastian Contin Trillo-Figueroa, a Hong Kong based geopolitical analyst and EU - Asia consultant with many years experience in unpacking European shenanigans. He also contribute to academic initiatives at the University of Hong Kong, and beyond. He recently wrote a very good analysis of what he calls the EU’s “Anti-Diplomacy” - in which he...

Originally published on 20 Jun 2025. Today (18.6.2025) I’m talking to Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, the Director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History at Bethlehem University. Dr. Yumsiyeh got a PhD from Connecticut University and then taught for many years in the US, including Tennessee Duke and Yale University. He returned to Palestine in 2008 where he is also right now. Links:Mazin Qumsiyeh's...

Originally published on 21 Jun 2025. Today I’m talking to Stanislav Krapivnik, a former US Army officer, supply chain executive and military-political expert who always provides valuable insights especially on security affairs in and around Russia. We are talking today on June 19th, 6 days after Israel’s attack on Iran and with the imminent threat of the US also launching an all-out military assau...

Originally published on 21 Jun 2025. While Tel Aviv is getting hit harder and harder, the Israeli's are getting desperate to finally push the US into a direct military attack on Iran. But for now, Donald Trump says he has not taken a decision. It might be an another lie to then hit Iran unexpectedly, or it might be an indication for a political battle inside Washington. Another indication of t...

Originally published on 21 Jun 2025. Today I’m talking again to Pietro Shakarian, an Armenian historian at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg who has analysed the Russian-Iranian relationship for a while. We are talking on June 19th, only 6 days after Israel’s sneak attack on Iran and currently everybody is waiting for what the US will do, but a direct military attack seems likely—at...

Originally published on 22 Jun 2025. The USA just announced with a lot of fanfare that it bombed the three nuclear sites in Iran, Forod, Natanz and Isfahan. But is that true? Did it actually deliver bombs with its airplanes as the president said? The Iranians are not yet confirming what happened and some limited reports have been out about the strikes actually not doing much more damage than what...

Originally published on 15 May 2025. Today I’m talking again to Dr. Dr. Alfred de Zayas, a Professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, who used to work as a senior lawyer in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and later became the first UN Independent Expert on International Order, serving in that capacity from 2012 to 2018.Two years ago, Alfred wrote an important scholarly...

Originally published on 13 May 2025. War is not a choice. War is a system—a self-perpetuating process. And in the US we have a deadly principe of mass-slaughter and violence baked into the logic of the economic organisation of the nation. Listen to Professor Radhika Desai dismantling the core of the imperial logic with her Geopolitical Economy approach to Marxist theory. Many of you will know her...

Originally published on 11 May 2025. You know you are nearing the end of empire when the chief extortionists start asking for ever more money for ever less return. The US is caught in a spiral of economic and moral bankruptcy. To help us take a step back and look at the big picture, I've got today Arnaud Bertrand back on the channel, one of Twitter/X’s best and most profound political analysts...

Originally published on 9 May 2025. The emperor is naked by now in so many areas that it is difficult to still find even just a shred of fabric somewhere. Even financially, there is no more sweet talking the situation. The US economy is only weeks away from a real supply shock that the bond marked it not playing ball with Trump's trade wars. Today I’m talking to Sean Foo. Many of you will prob...

Originally published on 8 May 2025. Today I’m talking to Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, an advisor to the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, and a prolific commentator here on YouTube and on other platforms. Professor Marandi always offers important Iranian viewpoints as well as realist analysis, so I’m happy he agree...

7 May 2025 Interviews Did Pakistan lose control of the terrorism it created in the name of the USA or is the escalation of recent days part and parcel of how the politics of regional terrorism is conducted? To discuss all this, today I'm talking to Dr. Hazrat Bahar. Dr. Bahar is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University in Germany...

Originally published on 6 May 2025. I‘ve been wrestling with the question of how to vest approach the Yugoslav wars and finally decided to ask someone who is not from the region but studied it for decades. Today I’m talking to Susan Woodward, a professor of political science at the City University of New York (CUNY). Professor Woodward is the author of “Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after...

Originally published on 5 May 2025. Last week there were rather large protests in the capital Taipei against the ruling TPP party and President William Lai. This news got suprpisingly little coverage in western media, which usually is so keen on showing all kinds of “people’s power” movements when they occur against governments the west doesn’t like. But this time, rather a wave of silence. To dis...

Originally published on 3 May 2025. Today I'm talking again to Michael Brenner. Michael is Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Jogn Hopkins. Links:Goods Shop: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth... Timestamps: 00:00:00 Preview 00:00:51 Intro 00:01:13 Connection between USA's internal politic...

Originally published on 2 May 2025. In the part 2 of the conversation with Jyotishman Mudiar, we discuss the US-China relation, Asia, and the future of Global Power. Jyotishman Mudiar is the host of the very successful YouTube Channel “India and Global Left”. He has been producing great content over there for many years already, so I highly recommend checking it out. Links:Jyotishman's channel...

Originally 1 May 2025. What is fueling the current tensions between India and Pakistan? What is the historical root of this conflict? How do the Indian and Pakistani media narratives differ? And where does this conflict sit in the global context? To answer all this and more, today I’m talking to Jyotishman Mudiar, the host of the very successful YouTube Channel “India and Global Left”. Jyotishman...

Originally published on 30 Apr 2025. Today I’m talking to Ali Borhani, a Geopolitical Strategist and the cohost of the BRI-Diaolgue podcast on which he talks to, experts, decision makers, and academics about all thins geopolitics and especially China’s Belt Road Initiative. In fact, Ali has been watching China very closely and included his findings in a report entitled “The Rise of Chinese Multina...

Originally published on 29 Apr 2025. Neutrality is much more than fence-sitting. It's a strategic way of approaching world affairs and it's not reserved for smalls states like Switzerland or Austria only. Want proof? Here is a short analysis of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact during the Second World War and some of Russia's modern use of the concept even beyond Ukraine. 00:00 When...

Originally published on 27 Apr 2025. NEW (!) Goods Shop: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth... As we are nearing Donald Trump’s 100th day in office on April 30th, it‘s worth assessing the last three months of his eclectic policies. Today I’m talking again to Cameron Macgregor, a US entrepreneur who founded a free speech platform, a fellow youtuber with a channel on finance and geopolitics, and...

Originally published on 26 Apr 2025. What are the erratic policy decisions of the Trump administration about? And why do the Russians seem so keen on going along with a diplomatic process that seems not conducive toward solving the Ukraine war? Even though Zelensky has already rejected the US framework for a negotiated settlement with Russia, Witkoff still went to Moscow and met with V. Putin. Ser...

Originally published on 25 Apr 2025. Why is the West so hell-bent on solving all its problems through warfare? What happened to those lofty goals and ideals of peaceful coexistence in Europe and the world? What happened to the visions of non-violent international relations and Europe as a peace project? Dr. Oberg is a Danish Peace Researcher in Sweden who recently wrote a noteworthy Substack artic...

Originally published on 24 Apr 2025. NEW (!) Goods Shop: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth... Today I’m talking to two colleagues in the US, James Carden and Lasha Kasradze. James is the editor of the Realist Review on Substack. And Lasha is the Liaoson officer for Sokumi state University in the US.We discuss the complexities of Trump's foreign policy as his administration nears its 100th...

Originally published on 23 Apr 2025. NEW (!) Goods Shop: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth... Will BRICS rescue small states from the predatory politics of the neocolonial West or is this just the latest itineration of yet another era of global „might makes right“? Today I’m talking to Dr. Asoka Bandarage. Dr. Bandarage is a Sri Lankan political scientist and the author of the book “Crisis in...

Originally published on 21 Apr 2025. NEW (!) Goods Shop: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth... Today I’m talking for the second time to Ambassador Jose Zorrilla .Ambassador Zorilla joined the Spanish Diplomatic Service in 1973, becoming Consul General to Milano, Shanghai, and Moscow and finally Spain’s Ambassador to Georgia in 2011. Today we want to discuss Trump's tariffs and his “Diplomac...