The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or the Middle Corridor (MC), connects China to the European Union through Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, and the South Caucasus. Although not the sole option to for moving goods between Asia and Europe, this multimodal transport route received growing attention following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As international sanctions reshaped trade alignments and disrupted global supply chains, countries began seeki

Introduction Hezbollah occupies a unique position in contemporary Lebanon. It is simultaneously a political party, an armed movement, a welfare provider, and a regional actor embedded within the strategic architecture of the Middle East. Much commentary reduces Lebanon to a collapsed state and Hezbollah to a destabilising militia. Such narratives obscure the structural dynamics that have shaped the organisation’s evolution and the social relations that sustain its legitimacy.

As rivalry between the United States and China increasingly shapes the international system, much of the analytical focus has centered on military capabilities, alliance structures, and ideological competition. Yet one of the most consequential actors in this evolving landscape is neither Washington nor Beijing, but Brussels. The European Union is not a traditional great power, nor does it seek to become one. Instead, it is emerging as a global swing state which will be refer

Europe faces geopolitical fragility when it comes to the semiconductor industry. Europe’s heavy reliance on Taiwan for front-end semiconductor manufacturing and wafer supply is a strategic vulnerability, one that pandemic-era disruptions made impossible to ignore. As a result, Europe’s semiconductor policy has been primarily focused on fabs by prioritising new investment and expanding domestic wafer supply. However, it still lacks the essential advanced packaging that binds c

Following military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger between 2020 and 2023, most analysts agreed that a new era had begun for the Sahel, one in which cooperation with Russia would be a fundamental pillar. Russia offered the newly installed juntas’ military support through the Wagner Group, a formally independent mercenary group, while positioning itself as an economic and diplomatic partner for the region, drawing on its claimed “historical aversion to Western colonialis

During the Cold War, the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) Gap mattered because its geography channeled submarines.  It was the acoustically and geographically constrained set of exits Soviet vessels would need to use to reach the North Atlantic, thereby making the Gap a natural place for NATO to concentrate fixed sensors and deploy both maritime patrol aircraft and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) forces.  The strategic problem at that time was relatively clear:  detect, t

Mainstream analysis of the Middle East has a recurring pattern of orbiting strictly around states with outsized  military or economic power. The likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Egypt, and more recently, the UAE and  Qatar. Meanwhile, the role of Kuwait and Jordan, two states that play crucial stabilising roles, rarely dominate international headlines, while they navigate a region rife with geopolitical fragmentation. Their quiet contributions are underscored by a soft-po

Introduction: Digitalization is fundamentally reshaping interactions among state, market, and society along the corridor The Nigeria–Cameroon frontier, spanning diverse terrains from Bakassi’s marshlands to Borno’s plains and the forests of Taraba and Cameroon’s Far North, has historically exemplified governance through intermittent state presence. In particular, administrative continuity has been lacking, resulting in a reliance on crisis interventions and militarized respon

The 20 th  of June 2025 could be a pivotal date for the European Union (EU): for the first time, the European Investment Bank (EIB) – the principal EU tool for developmental projects in and out of the Union – approved a 450-million euro loan for the installation of a military campus in Rūdninkai, Lithuania. The involvement of the EIB in such a project, aimed at strengthening NATO’s Eastern flank, is a significant shift in EIB’s casual projects, and therefore a shift in EU pri

Canada is entering a critical phase in the expansion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity. The inauguration of the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, British Columbia, marks a significant shift for a country whose energy exports have long been defined by near-exclusive reliance on the United States. By opening direct access to overseas markets, this project represents a structural departure from Canada’s traditional dependence on its southern neighbour. The launch

For decades, Turkey has dreamt of becoming a regional gas hub. It has sought to compensate for its lack of domestic hydrocarbon resources by taking advantage of its energy-rich neighbours and position itself as the leading energy partner in the region. To be sure, Turkey is already an important transit country for Russian, Middle Eastern and Central Asian gas. But in order to become a ‘gas marketplace’, several obstacles lay ahead for Ankara: namely the geopolitical tensions

“History is made,” declared Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão in October 2025 during the signing ceremony marking the small country’s entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). For Timor-Leste, ASEAN membership celebrates the nation’s resilience and determination, 23 years after gaining independence from Indonesia and 14 years of negotiations with the organization. For ASEAN, it represents the continuing realization of a united regional community

Moldova: a small landlocked state of less of 3 million people, squeezed between Romania and Ukraine, described as Europe’s poorest country. Despite its modest size, Moldova sits at the crossroads of some of the world’s most consequential power struggles. The country’s economy remains heavily burdened by debt, much of it linked to the import of Russian natural gas, while over half of its population experiences energy poverty. According to UNDP data, more than 60% of Moldovans

How can the EU foster long-term strategic autonomy of its food system? Europe often treats food security as a given. The EU discards over 58 million tonnes of food a year - about 130 kg per person - worth an estimated €132 billion. That abundance, however, can be misleading. The war in Ukraine, dependence on external inputs, and climate-driven harvest shocks have shown how quickly availability and prices can be weaponised. We need to rethink food security in terms of resilien

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on deep-sea mining marks one of the most assertive steps yet toward reshaping America’s control over critical mineral supply chains. Presented as part of a broader effort to reduce dependence on China, the order directs U.S. agencies to accelerate offshore exploration and streamline commercial licensing for seabed mineral extraction. While framed as a move to bolster national resilience against China centric supply lines, the po

In 2025, the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary. Since its founding in 1945, the UN has represented the idea that global order could be based on cooperation, institutions, and law. Today, however, the challenges it faces (geopolitical rivalries, fragmentation of powers, and diverging national interests) raise questions about its effectiveness and centrality. It is therefore useful to examine how this system of governance developed, identify its limits at each stage, an

On October 30th, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea. Despite the exaggerated description by the Whitehouse as “massive victory” for American workers, as a result of the “trade and economic deal”. Beyond the hyperbole, the meeting can rather be best described as a one-year trade truce with a non-bonding agreement between both sides, as the talks yielded agreements on a narrow set of issues of concern, but with no major strategic breakthrough.

Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, is sinking at an alarming rate. Faced with overpopulation and failing infrastructure, it now holds the title of the world’s fastest-sinking city. In response, the Indonesian government announced in 2019 the construction of a new capital, Nusantara, in eastern Borneo. Could relocating its capital transform Indonesia’s role in Southeast Asia and beyond? With over 17,500 islands, Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago and the fourth most popul

For much of the past twenty years, Europe’s commercial ties with China have been straightforward: European machine tools, industrial software and high-end components found ready buyers in China’s vast manufacturing sector, while luxury goods makers enjoyed a fast-growing consumer base. Concerns about labour rights or geopolitics rarely slowed the flow of trade. That picture is now changing. A combination of export controls on “dual-use” technologies, which are products that c

Abstract This article would like to explore the relationship between violence, power, and symbolism in Central America, looking from pre-Columbian rituals of blood and death to the contemporary dynamics of criminality and state politics. Building on the centrality of sacrifice in Mesoamerican traditions, it examines how Gangs & Cartels ritualize violence through history and aesthetics of death. In the last part, particular attention is given to El Salvador under President Nay