USA

Right-Wing Extremism: A Multidimensional Threat Assessment

ByElisa Garbil

Written by Elisa Garbil – 26.01.2025 Right-wing extremism is a persistent and evolving threat that manifests across multiple social, institutional, and digital contexts. Unlike general criminal activity, right-wing extremism is ideologically driven, rooted in exclusionary nationalism, racial or ethnic supremacy, anti-immigration sentiment, and conspiratorial frameworks. Its influence extends beyond isolated acts of violence, affecting institutional integrity, societal…

Afghanistan After the Exit: Security Myths, Gender Apartheid, and the Costs of Walking Away

Afghanistan After the Exit: Security Myths, Gender Apartheid, and the Costs of Walking Away

ByMelanie Meimoun

When Afghanistan made international headlines again in August 2021, the country was often pictured as an ending: the end of a twenty-year intervention, the end of Western responsibility, the end of a failed state-building experiment. Is it really? As Dominic Bowen argues in The International Risk Podcast, Afghanistan is not a closed chapter, and still…

Global Disorder and the Limits of the Rules-Based International Order

Global Disorder and the Limits of the Rules-Based International Order

ByKaterina Mazzucchelli

The defining feature of today’s international system is not the emergence of a new balance of power, but the absence of a shared framework through which power is exercised. Rather than transition, the system is characterised by fragmentation, uncertainty, and weak consensus over rules, norms, and responsibilities. In a recent episode of The International Risk…

Grey Zones at Europe’s Edge: Ceuta, Melilla and Maritime Power

Grey Zones at Europe’s Edge: Ceuta, Melilla and Maritime Power

ByMelanie Meimoun

How two small Spanish cities on Africa’s coast expose bigger problems in migration, sovereignty, and maritime power Ceuta and Melilla embody anticonformism in the geopolitical order as two beautiful Spanish cities situated on the African continent. Yet they sit at the centre of Europe’s most complicated border politics. In practice, they are more than enclaves:…

Synthetic Biology, Global Risks and Benefits, and the Future of Engineering Life

Synthetic Biology, Global Risks and Benefits, and the Future of Engineering Life

ByKaterina Mazzucchelli

Synthetic biology is increasingly recognised as one of the most consequential technological domains shaping global risk in the coming decade, with major implications highlighted in recent reports by the OECD and other international policy bodies. Advances in biological engineering are already transforming medicine, industrial production, and climate innovation, a trajectory documented in futures‑oriented assessments of…

Political Risk as the Decisive Force Behind Corridor Success: Why the INSTC, BRI, and the Middle Corridor Rise or Falter

Political Risk as the Decisive Force Behind Corridor Success: Why the INSTC, BRI, and the Middle Corridor Rise or Falter

ByElisa Garbil

Written by Elisa Garbil – 12.01.2026 Transport corridors, also known as the arteries of global trade, are often described in terms of engineering feats, freight volumes, and infrastructure investments. Yet the true determinant of whether these grand initiatives thrive or stall lies elsewhere. Beyond tracks, ports, and customs software sits the quieter but more powerful force shaping…

Security, Climate Change, and Risk in the Arctic and the High North

Security, Climate Change, and Risk in the Arctic and the High North

ByKaterina Mazzucchelli

The Arctic and the High North are undergoing rapid transformation. Climate change is reshaping the physical environment, while shifting alliance dynamics and renewed geopolitical competition are altering how states think about security, access, and risk in the region. Yet despite growing attention, the Arctic is often framed through simplified narratives that overstate militarisation, exaggerate commercial…

UK and world politics: how do we adapt to dying party systems? With special guest Lord Jonathan Sumption

UK and world politics: how do we adapt to dying party systems? With special guest Lord Jonathan Sumption

ByMelanie Meimoun

Our guest today is none other than a former UK High Court Justice with decades of experience as a historian and a lawman. With the intention to learn more about history and the shifting tendencies in the UK politics, from a two-party system to a more challenging, plural and perhaps populist one, we learn about…

Sovereign Debt as Strategy: Credit, Constraint, and the Quiet Reordering of Power

Sovereign Debt as Strategy: Credit, Constraint, and the Quiet Reordering of Power

ByKaterina Mazzucchelli

Sovereign debt is not new. What is new is the role it now plays at the strategic level. Instruments once treated as technical matters of fiscal management have moved to the centre of international politics, shaping how states exert influence, constrain rivals, and manage risk without overt confrontation. In a recent episode of The International…

Traceability and Risk in Africa’s Critical Minerals

Traceability and Risk in Africa’s Critical Minerals

ByElisa Garbil

Written by Elisa Garbil – 29.12.2025 Critical minerals have become the strategic linchpin of the global energy transition. Electrification, battery manufacturing, and digital infrastructure all depend on a steady flow of minerals such as cobalt, lithium, manganese, rare earth elements, and platinum-group metals. As industrialised economies push toward decarbonisation and technological expansion, they are discovering that the…