Elon Musk seemed to be omnipresent a year ago. 2025 was swathed in a succession of Musk's political undertakings, his name part of the furniture of the headlines. January saw him salute in a way akin to the Nazis at the inauguration of Donald Trump, February his awkward wielding of a chainsaw at CPAC and the painful declaration that he had, quote, “become meme”. His role as leader of DOGE resulted in immense pitfalls for federal agencies and slashing of government jobs, as we

A recent trip to the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia impressed on me an increasingly prescient political issue requiring ever more European attention: the status of non-citizen Russians in the Baltics. As of 2024, in Estonia 61,000 people have ‘undetermined citizenship’. In Latvia, 175,000 people have noncitizen status, making up 9% of the population. These murky categories exist as a result of a desire to protect independence and cultural heritage after the Baltic states

Since its posthumous publication in 1532, Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince has served as an incisive articulation of realism – the idea that power is gained through self-interest and competition. Written against the backdrop of the Italian Wars (1494 – 1559), The Prince was intended for the eyes of Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of the Florentine Republic. Yet, Machiavelli’s insights remain robust, and, to this day, his magnum opus continues to provide a helpful framework for m

Long gone are the days of muskets, bayonets, and line infantry. Throughout history, the nature of conflict has consistently evolved. Both World Wars drove major advances and a growing reliance on radio communications, aircraft, and tanks, and ultimately culminated in the birth of the nuclear bomb. The Cold War era saw an increased use of precision guided missiles (PGMs), satellite GPS, and surveillance. Today, artificial intelligence, especially drones, is reshaping moder

US president Donald Trump may be facing perilous declines in public opinion , precipitated in large part by the conflict with Iran, but he continues to completely play western news media outlets, using them to stage his politics with the dressing of reality TV theatrics that he so depends on. He is conducting politics at the sharp end of things in the international arena like they are a reality TV show, designed to keep his viewers hooked. And news media’s constant reproduct