Women Leaders

The United States is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding on July 4th. Whilst the country is living through deep changes in its global perception, it is well to remember that as an entity it has always been different: the first declared republic, rejecting monarchy or any form of inherited rule in favour of government by the people and for the people. A nation created by a Declaration...

The war in Iran, and the broader Middle East, is apparently over — at least according to US President Trump. A  14-point agreement  between the US and Iran has been signed - in Versailles Palace, where the ill-fated agreement ending World War I was signed - largely giving Iran all it asked for. The world economy may eventually return to some semblance of normality as the Strait of Hormuz...

It remains unclear whether the US President had requested a full risk assessment before deciding to launch airstrikes against Iran, or whether the option of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz was highlighted then. However, the reality of the closed Strait, the global economic impact and the resulting rapidly changing international order highlight a core reality: our lives are underpi...

Long wars evolve and change, sometimes due to innovation and weapons other times due to politics and personalities — but in all cases there is a sharp change of context: the realities in which the war started cease to apply, and the new ones dictate events. The war in Ukraine has now reached this situation. While Russia claims to still be fighting the same war for the same reasons,...

There are certain events that are so important they signify a word now rarely used: possibility. The victory of the opposition Tisza party in Hungary over the long-ruling illiberal Fidesz party embodies the idea of possibility — a possible new and better future, a possible reconciliation with the EU, a possible end to corruption, and so many other possibilities. As the Tisza party headed...

As all eyes remain on Iran, the US and the Strait of Hormuz, the global repercussions of the Iran war are becoming ever more evident. Food is an issue slowly hitting many parts: fertilisers are by products of fossil fuels, and the blocked Strait will constrain sowing seasons around the world. As regards the fuels themselves, many airlines are cutting flights as jet&nb...

The regional war that started on 28 February 2026 with US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran has engulfed Lebanon, Israel and the Gulf states. Meting out destruction, death and disillusion on all sides, 40 days of conflict stopped with US President Trump threatening to wipe out Iranian civilisation — to the horror of many around the world — and a fragile ceasefire agreed on April 7th, with negoti...

In week three of the war started by US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the main outcome appears to be destruction: of buildings and gas fields and military hardware; of the world energy market; of US credibility. The conflict has spread to Lebanon courtesy of Hezbollah, and Israel is being hit by missiles from there and Iran. The Gulf states, living under attack too, are seeing their economic model of...

The Islamic revolution that swept Iran in 1979 changed not only that state but also the region, and the world. The current war in and Iran can still be understood as a direct outcome of that event. The humiliation of the US in 1979 made it implacably opposed to Iran. The alignment of most of the Gulf states with the US and their increasing ties with Israel also created a complex bal...

Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir has just been published, and the Jeffrey Epstein files continue to become public. While the admirable Ms Pelicot has become a modern heroine, the two stories have forced a strong focus upon a core common reality: women remain the ultimate objects, to be subjugated by men. Ms Pelicot, the survivor of multiple rapes while rendered unconscious by her husband, recovered her own...

Iran is at a boiling point. In January mass protests broke out across the country and many thousands of people were wounded and killed — by their own government. US President Trump appeared to egg the protesters on, though no tangible aid or succour materialised. On the other hand the US has now moved an aircraft carrier and a number of destroyers close to Iran in a milita...

The world is at a point of extreme discomfort, even pain. The first year of the second Trump administration was brutal, undermining the structures of democracy within the US and actively seeking to destroy the post WWII global order everywhere else. In the global south the cuts to US aid are clearly biting but also allowing a strong presence of. China and Russia. In Iran and Uk...

2026 undoubtedly started with a spectacular show by the US in Venezuela; the question is -- what is it a show of?? Force, for sure. Planes, drones and soldiers all invaded Venezuela in a meticulously planned operation that focused on abducting President Maduro and his wife to the US, to stand drug charges. But beyond force, this was also a show of deep disregard for the world order and for interna...

Tittle: Africa all around There is a renowned inclination to view and discuss Africa largely in terms of failure and disaster. The horrendous civil war in Sudan, the coups in the Sahel, the never ending wars in the DRC, are excellent examples. More broadly, in the West the continent tends to be seen as a long project of democratisation, whilst to Russia and China it is largely a huge&nbs...

According to Wikipedia, 28 is “approximately the number of grams in an ounce, and used as such in commercial trade.” This may explain why there were 28 points in the US plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine: it was drafted by people interested in commerce and trade, and the US stands to gain some US$ 300 billion from this deal. However, the US financial gain is the only original element in the plan,...

A long war is unimaginable to people in the developed world. Since WWII, most states in Europe have not experienced conflict in their lands, barring the Balkans in the 1990s, and the US has never really lived through such a reality, apart from the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the attacks of 9/11. And while some parts of Africa are mired in conflict as indeed is the Middle East, it...

There are many aspects to our current events: trade wars, international realignments weakening democracies, strengthening autocracies, social discontent, wars kinetic and hybrid, a faltering international system and much more. Each element may be explained individually but taken together they add up to no less than a revolution: a change so fundamental that even after the wheel...

As most international mediators know, Israel-Palestine is a conflict to avoid. Intellectually, it should be solvable, but in reality it is intractable. In this episode we bring together a Palestinian and an Israeli — Dr Tahani Mustafa of the ECFR and Dr Miriam Rosman of the Dvorah Forum — hoping to move beyond intractable, due to the Gaza ceasefire. It has heralded much hope fo...

Donald Trump is everywhere: at the UN General Assembly, at special press conferences, at meetings of his military leadership and in the White House - condemning Europe and climate change one day, announcing a Gaza deal the next, doubling down on tariffs the third, doing nothing about Russia throughout. In the meantime the US seems to be ever more in turmoil, with the Federal government shut down,...

International development has come to an end, according to some economists. Be it the sudden closure of USAID earlier this year, the shift of EU and NATO states to defence spending, or the populist inspired interest in isolationism, the inclination to fund others is diminishing. However, development is not just about foreign aid: it is also about allocating the means to improve the one that benefi...

The summer is over but it has hardly been a period of repose and relaxation: the world has continued in its turmoil, not least at the behest of the US. In moves that have often baffled traditional US allies, the current Trump administration has made brash moves claiming to be about Making America Great Again (MAGA) but which ultimately seemed to signify US retreat from global leadership. From atta...

While the eyes of many have been on the US, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, Gaza, the wider Middle East and much more, the southern Caucasus, that collection of states composed of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, have been roiling between order and disorder - and attracting the attention of many power players. In Georgia, the Russia-backed government is cracking down on opposition leaders, while Ar...

The NATO summit in The Hague (24-25 June) will be recalled for a number of reasons: the allies, barring Spain, committed to raising their spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035, a sum deemed inconceivable before; there were no significant disagreements, not least because all allies went out of their way to ensure that US President Trump was not upset, by anything; and NATO Secretary Ge...

In a world of kinetic wars and increasing expenditure on defence and security - coupled with the culture wars so exacerbated by the extremes of left and right - we often forget, or probably ignore, the wider context of bombs and ideologies: people. And in many parts of the world humans are diminishing in numbers, rapidly - apart from most parts of Africa, no continent any longer attains ...

The vast majority of humanity experiences war as a spectator — which is excellent. The distance from the reality of noise and danger and hurt and debris allows for passionate opinions on right and wrong, disgust and despair. But for those living and experiencing the harsh reality, whether as a combatant at the front or an endangered civilian behind the lines, war is ghastly. Being shelled and bomb...