Costly Red Sea lessons haunt new effort to protect Strait of Hormuz
The Western allies trying to negotiate a way to protect the Strait of Hormuz for energy shipping face a stark reality: a similar effort in the Red Sea that started ...
NATO illusions and the reality of Cyprus’ deterrence strategies
In the wake of the March 2, 2026, drone strike on the British Sovereign Base at Akrotiri, President Nikos Christodoulides has moved to reorient the Republic of Cyprus’s grand strategy. His ...
The US-Iran war and the geopolitics of a global conflict
As the conflict unfolds, it is becoming clearer that war with Iran will not be a quick, surgical operation as initially expected. Instead, it signifies a deeper struggle and a ...
DRUG CARTELS
Unprecedented military raid is risky gamble for Mexico’s Sheinbaum
The Mexican military raid that killed the country’s most wanted cartel leader on Sunday was President Claudia Sheinbaum’s biggest bet yet, doubling down on her historic offensive against ...
World economic challenges in 2026
By Kyriacos Lambrias and Nektarios Michail
In what follows, we offer our view on what the main economic challenges in the world economy are in the coming year. It is ...
Europe aims to rely less on US defence after Trump’s Greenland push
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reflected a feeling of profound change among European leaders at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference when she said: “Some lines have been ...
Once feted, Mandelson becomes nightmare for weakened PM Keir Starmer
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States was once hailed as an inspired move to deploy a master of the “...
US and Russia face unconstrained nuclear arms race as new START nears expiry
The United States and Russia could embark on an unrestrained nuclear arms race for the first time since the Cold War, unless they reach an eleventh-hour deal before their last ...
Artificial General Intelligence
Funny how science fiction keeps becoming reality
By Stelios Colocassides
What began as a business tool, then an everyday convenience, is now starting to resemble something far more unsettling: a force that may soon decide outcomes that ...
Denmark’s Greenland dilemma: Defending a territory already on its way out
When U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets his Danish and Greenlandic counterparts this week, Denmark will be defending a territory that has been moving steadily away from it ...
Maduro’s immunity claim tests US power to prosecute foreign leaders
Nicolás Maduro’s first appearance in a U.S. courtroom offered a glimpse of the legal battle ahead over rarely tested questions — chief among them whether he can claim ...
COP30: UN CLIMATE SUMMIT
COP30 deal exposes fragile climate unity as US steps back
In the final fractious hours of the U.N. climate summit in Brazil, when a deal to advance the world’s fight against global warming was slipping out of reach, ...
Trump convinced Netanyahu to take a deal but can he keep him onboard?
President Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed peacemaker who has campaigned for a Nobel Prize, finally got a camera-ready diplomatic victory on Monday as world leaders flew to Egypt for the signing ...
High hopes, harsh reality: Why CEM is unlikely to deliver cheaper power in Cyprus
The single aim of the competitive electricity market (CEM) must be to bring about substantial reductions in Cyprus’ very high electricity prices. Anything else is of secondary importance and certainly ...
A bold political decision: Greece’s strict new bill against illegal immigration
Tony Blair has said that the best way to understand a country’s development and prosperity is to calculate how many people want to leave it, but also how many ...
Safety or surveillance? Europe’s debate over ‘Chat Control’
By Tomaz Lovsin
The European Union is at a crossroads in its digital policy. A draft regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (CSA) — often called “Chat Control” — would ...
Tariffs
Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal
In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump’s America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal ...
IRAN
Buried or hidden? Bombing obscures fate of Iran’s weapons-grade uranium
The US and Israeli bombing of Iranian nuclear sites creates a conundrum for UN inspectors in Iran: how can you tell if enriched uranium stocks, some of them near weapons ...
Diplomacy ends, missiles begin: US pounds Iran nuclear sites
In a bid to defuse the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program, foreign ministers from Europe’s top three powers hurried to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva.
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Iran-Israel
Israeli strikes push Iran’s leadership into a corner
By Samia Nakhoul and Parisa Hafezi
Israel has gutted Iran’s nuclear and military leadership with airstrikes that leave a weakened Tehran with few options to retaliate, including an all-out ...
After years of waiting, Israel’s Netanyahu finally makes his move on Iran
Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran’s nuclear programme, and his repeated threats to shut ...
Ukraine war
Istanbul peace talks laid bare chasm between Ukraine and Russia
The first high-level talks between Russia and Ukraine since the early months of Moscow’s 2022 invasion showed they are far from agreement on steps needed for a ceasefire, even though ...
Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world economy
The latest round of U.S. trade tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap yet more vigour from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by ...
European optimism rises on the back of Trump’s erratic moves
US President Donald Trump’s erratic policymaking has given Europe an unexpected spur to action, but any sense of “Europhoria” about the region’s chances of turning this moment into ...