Grey zone warfare is not new. What is new is the role it now plays at the strategic level. Tactics that once sat at the margins of international politics have moved to its centre, shaping how states compete, coerce, and manage risk without crossing the threshold of open war. In a recent episode of The…
Today, Dominic Bowen hosts Dr Andrew Mumford on The International Risk Podcast to examine how grey zone warfare, hybrid tactics and strategic ambiguity are reshaping the contemporary security environment. They explore why sub-threshold activity has become a central feature of modern geopolitics, how states exploit ambiguity and deniability to pursue strategic objectives without triggering open…
Ambassador Hesham Youssef is a distinguished, former Egyptian diplomat and international peacebuilding expert, with more than thirty years of experience navigating some of the Middle East’s most complex political and humanitarian challenges. He began his diplomatic career at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1985, serving in the Egyptian Embassy in Canada (1988–1992) and the Egyptian Mission in Geneva (1995–1999). Between 1992…
In this episode, Dominic Bowen and Hesham Youssef discuss the growing tensions and international risks between Egypt and Israel, the fragile state of regional diplomacy, and the pressures placed on long-standing agreements such as the Camp David Accords. Find out more about why Egypt views forced displacement from Gaza as an existential red line, how humanitarian…
Very few bilateral relationships in the Middle East are as paradoxical as the one between Egypt and Israel. The two countries are bound together historically, geographically and diplomatically, one could say. They share what is today the region’s longest-standing peace treaty -the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty-, but their relationship is characterized by strategic cautiousness and distance. Today, cooperation between Cairo and Jerusalem,…
Around the world, more and more communities are finding that climate change isn’t only about rising temperatures or shifting weather patterns, but for many communities, the first signs of climate change appear in far more everyday pressures: a harvest that doesn’t come in, a water source that no longer lasts the season, a job that…
Peter Schwartzstein is an environmental journalist, researcher and advisor who focuses on environmental peacebuilding and the conflict-climate nexus. He’s spent more than a decade reporting across more than thirty countries in the Middle East, Africa, and farther afield, mostly for National Geographic. He’s a fellow at the Stimson Center, journalist-in-residence at The Center for Climate and Security, and…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 10.12.2025 For decades, discussions of extremism in Germany have been dominated by the spectres of right-wing and Islamist violence. The nation’s historical trauma and recent experiences with far-right terror have understandably captured most of the security community’s attention. Yet beneath this focus, another movement has persisted, one that is quieter, more fragmented,…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Our conversation today with Felix Neumann traces the shifting landscape of far-left extremism, beginning with the broader global pressures shaping today’s political climate. We unpack how certain ideological threads have evolved, splintered, and re-formed, creating a movement that is at once fragmented and unexpectedly resilient. Along the way, we examine the role…
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 described an “increasingly fractured” world, with state-based conflict, climate disruption, political polarization and technological risks all intensifying at the same time. Geopolitical and international risk dashboards from 2Secure, BlackRock, KPMG and others show the same picture: conflicts are reshaping trade, energy and supply chains; national security concerns…
