For more than six decades, USAID sat at the centre of the global humanitarian and development system. A little over a year ago, USAID became one of the first targets of the Trump administration’s DOGE campaign. Today, the hum and development sector is grappling with profound uncertainty at precisely the moment humanitarian needs are growing,…
Nicholas Enrich is a former civil servant who worked at USAID under four administrations. He served as the Bureau of Global Health’s director of policy, programs, and planning until January 2025, when he was designated as USAID’s acting assistant administrator for global health. On March 2, 2025, he was placed on administrative leave for exposing the Trump…
Why Does It Matter? Across societies around the world, violent extremism and radicalisation present profound risks to public safety, social cohesion, and community stability. These phenomena do not always follow traditional ideological lines, as they often emerge in diffuse, unpredictable ways, fueled by online communities, personal grievances, and distorted belief systems. Understanding the nature of…
Marcus D. King is Professor of the Practice in Environment and International Affairs in the Science and Technology in International Affairs Program (STIA) at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He holds a joint appointment at Earth Commons, Georgetown’s Institute for Environment & Sustainability. Prior to Georgetown, King was the John O. Rankin…
Across Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and now the Gulf, water systems are no longer just collateral damage. They are becoming targets and tools of coercion. Dams, desalination plants, pumping stations, rivers, reservoirs, and electricity grids are being pulled into the battlespace, with civilians paying the highest price. This matters far beyond the battlefield….
Jon-Paul Gabriele is a crisis management practitioner and founder of Crisis City, where he helps organisations prepare for the moments every business hopes will never happen but many eventually face. With more than 15 years of experience managing real incidents across government and global enterprises, he understands the difference between a crisis plan that looks…
AI is rapidly becoming a central axis of economic transformation, corporate strategy, and geopolitical risk. What began as experimentation with generative tools has evolved into a full-scale reconfiguration of how firms invest, operate, and compete. In a recent episode of the International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen spoke with Craig Unsworth, a portfolio Chief Product…
Humphrey Hawksley is a former BBC foreign correspondent who works over the last 40 years or so has taken him to crises all over the world. He is also an award-winning author, commentator and guest lecturer at universities and think tanks such as the RAND Corporation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and MENSA…
The global landscape feels increasingly unsettled. Conflict in the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine to wider geoplitical, technological and climatic shifts, the world is going though a period of rapid change. At the same time, the nature of conflict and the way it’s reported has changed dramatically over the past few decades. So today we’re…
You might’ve seen the recent Inside the Manosphere documentary by Louis Theroux. About a year ago we had this episode with Dr. Allysa Czwerinsky discussing this exact topic! Misogyny is no longer confined to the fringes, it’s part of the mainstream. Find out more about who is harmed, how online rhetoric shapes real-world consequences, and the blurred…
