With Peter Mandelson once again slinking away from British government with his (apparently forked) tail between his legs, it gives pause for reflection on the dangers inherent in the fact that, at some level, politics comes down to the personal. Just like all news is local news somewhere in the world, the people at the heart of power behind the headlines, campaigns, and scandals of national or global significance, are people, driven by personal agency and motivations. For d

Just over a month ago, two events occurred that until recently seemed improbable: the direct intervention of the United States in Venezuelan territory and the overthrow, and apparent end, of Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship . The following reflects on the nuances surrounding this episode , understanding that it does not follow on from mere wars of words, but rather a conflict with a deep geopolitical heritage, both internal and external. The United States has a long history of i

The United States of America was founded on 4 th July 1776 on the values of liberty, equality and individual rights, a place of self-determination and agency, where citizens can attain their highest potential. Now, 250 years later, the very pillars that formed the United States are being called into question through the over-centralisation of power by the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in American cities. To date, at lea

Where Donald Trump’s first tenure as President of the United States was concerned with making America great again, it is quickly becoming apparent he has broadened his horizons with his second innings. Growing weary of his global reputation as an obtrusive, childish bully, he’s spent the last year showing the world all he wants to do is bring about peace – granted, of course, he gets the credit. A big gold medal would be nice, too. This is, of course, referring to Trump’s ind

The ‘ un-Blairing ’, or the death of (domestic) liberalism and (international) liberal interventionism, cemented the failure of the presupposed ‘ End of History ’. Not only did the Iraq war tear down broad, contemporary ideological unity, but it also tainted the reputation of the leaders who espoused it. George W. Bush Jr. doesn’t deserve much of a defence: he was a woeful President, perhaps saved from the dungeon of history only by today’s sheer absurdity , though that remai

“When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you” is a line from Nietzsche , who warned that “whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster.” I recall this Nietzschean fragment as apposite to today’s Venezuela, and how tempting it is for those who struggle against domination to justify using the dominator’s tools. Venezuela is not only a tragedy for Venezuelans; it is a test of whether democracies can resist becoming what they

Relations between the USA and Venezuela experienced one of the most shocking fractures in modern diplomatic history this January when President Maduro was captured by US special forces and taken to New York. His midnight Caracas kidnapping has transformed tensions between the two countries from a classic diplomatic crisis into a global sovereignty and legal crisis, rendering it a pivotal test of the nascent multipolar world order, rather than a mere feud between strongmen. An

Only a select few would claim agricultural surpluses are a sexy topic. But in this arena the seeds have been sown for a potential backlash against the current US administration, as recently decimated international food aid policies were once a pressure release valve for tensions with the agriculture lobby over slumping crop prices – a problem faced by the US government again today. Trump’s vision is of America as a producer, an export powerhouse, maker and grower of things t

Churchill may or may not have said – it’s an aphorism with cloudy provenance – that “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte may or may not believe it. After all, as American threats to obtain Greenland, a member of NATO via the Danish commonwealth, grow increasingly bellicose, the “Trump-whisperer” is all but silent. Adopting a ‘nothing to see here’ attitude with almost mon

Donald Trump’s unprecedented attack on the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has been met with an equally unprecedented defence composed of Ex-Fed chairs, central bank governors, and titans of global finance. Central to this alliance’s criticism of Trump is an ominous warning of disaster to come should the Fed’s independence be violated. For example, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde emphasised the role central bank independence played as a “corner

The New York Times published one of the finest long-form features in recent memory last week. The piece was a thorough chronicling of the US-Ukraine relationship and its evolution over the past 12 action-filled months. Despite the US’s off-the-cuff approach to foreign policy, the brazen contempt it shows Ukraine and the rest of Europe is consistently striking. Pressure is barely exerted on Putin, with any attempt to end his barbarous actions feeling futile. Everything is stu

When asked about his thoughts on JFK’s assassination, Malcolm X responded with the phrase “the chickens come home to roost.” Malcolm, writing during America’s imperialist scramble over the newly decolonized nations, criticized the belief that America could impart political violence abroad without expecting any consequences closer to home. American naivete, if not outright arrogance, has led to the perpetuation of Western imperialism to our day. Consistently, America undermin

This Trump administration’s recent Latin American chevauchées are old school. But the world has moved on since Monroe, and regional actors may well respond in more modern manners to the egregious treatment of Venezuela. ‘Gunboat diplomacy’ was the name awarded, perhaps most famously, to the actions of US Commodore Perry in the 1850s. The USA gained access to the closed-off Japanese economy by pounding Japanese infrastructure from the sea until it got its way. Though this infa

A few weeks before Christmas, I quietly wrote a piece for a student publication exploring Trump’s continuation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine through his rampant interventions in America’s so-called backyard. In light of recent kidnappings , I suppose I should have bought a lottery ticket too. Trump had been pushing the limits in Venezuela for a while. On December 10 th , the US seized a crude oil tanker , which Trump claimed was being used to transport oil between Iran and V

The second half of the decade begins with a political map in Latin America radically different from the one that marked its early years. The region enters 2026 undergoing a clear shift to the right , with political forces that have not only consolidated their power but have done so with greater ideological discourse and ambition for power than in previous cycles. During 2025, the right wing won all four presidential elections held in the region - Ecuador , Bolivia , Chile , a

On the 5th of December Donald Trump’s second National Security strategy was released to little fanfare, nevertheless precipitating great global alarm, not least in Europe, as it appears to promote an archaic vision of a world once again carved up for consumption by superpowers. This National Security Strategy is very streamlined, at only 29 pages, compared to Trump’s 55-page 2017 equivalent. It even describes these old strategies as ‘ bloated and unfocused.’ This reflects

As more photos were released by House Democrats just a day before the 19 th December deadline, the enigma that is Jeffrey Epstein still sends shockwaves around the world. With the stripping of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s princehood to the October release of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir ‘ Nobody’s Girl ’, there has been even further pressure aimed at political leaders to expose the full extent of the Epstein files. Last month, Trump signed the Epstein Files Transpar

Almost a year into his second term as President of the United States, and Donald Trump’s promise to bring peace to an unstable world seems to have been almost completely forgotten by the administration. His progress on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has so far been mired with difficulties, with both nations refusing to agree on what they feel are unjust compromises and the absence of security guarantees. In the Middle East, the perceived success of Trump’s Gaza pe

Like Barbie, Trump has a great day every day. And who wouldn’t?! Waking up in his golden Dreamhouse (ballrooms sold separately), Trump gets to decide his truth, the truth, on any given matter at any given time! In Trump Land anything can happen! The latest from Trump Land is that the American economy has never ever been better! Kicking off the battle for the 2026 midterm elections at a rally in north-east Pennsylvania – his first in five months – Trump united the crowd behin

This past September, the Trump Administration began conducting airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea as part of the President’s agenda to fight the flow of drugs from Latin America into the U.S. The Washington Post first reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave the verbal order to Seal Team Six to “leave no survivors” during a September 2 strike off the coast of Venezuela. As the two survivors were subsequently killed in a second strike, his order would be deem