Cormac Smith works at the intersection of authentic leadership & effective communication. He travelled to Ukraine in 2016 to take up a special appointment as the ‘Strategic Communication Advisor’ to Pavlo Klimkin, the then Foreign Minister of Ukraine. Cormac was attached to the British Embassy in Kyiv but was embedded in Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Dive into the ongoing war with Cormac Smith today. Dominic and Cormac discuss Mariupol, whether the war can be considered genocide, the disinformation war, the reality of Russian aggression, war crimes, hybrid warfare, the need for unity, and more! Today we are joined by Cormac Smith. Cormac works at the intersection of…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 16.10.2025 Late in the night of 4–5 October 2025, Russian forces launched one of the more intense combined missile-and-drone assaults of the war. According to Ukrainian officials, more than 50 ballistic and cruise missiles, along with nearly 500 drones, struck nine regions across the country, hitting energy infrastructure, civilian districts, and industrial…
Antoine Renaux is an Economic Intelligence & Geopolitics Analyst, his expertise lies in defence and security policy, economic intelligence, and geopolitical risk analysis. His career spans strategic intelligence, public affairs, and policy analysis roles across both public and private sectors, giving him a nuanced, operational understanding of complex international dynamics. His key areas of expertise…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 18.09.2025 The geopolitical temperature in Eastern Europe has been rising sharply. In recent weeks, Poland has found itself at the forefront of a dangerous escalation between NATO and Russia. Russian drones have repeatedly intruded into Polish airspace, testing both Poland’s defensive capabilities and NATO’s collective resolve. Warsaw has responded decisively, scrambling jets,…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil With the Zapad Military exercises occurring again near the Polish border, Dominic Bowen has Antoine Renaux on the podcast. They analyse the challenges of NATO, Russia’s probing operations, NATO’s response, and more importantly, NATO’s preparedness. Find out more about Article 5 and the potential scenarios, why hybrid warfare and cyber attacks are…
In a recent episode of The International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen was joined by Professor Jamie Shea, one of NATO’s most experienced insiders and former Deputy Assistant Secretary General, to examine the Alliance at a moment of profound transformation. With nearly four decades of service at NATO, Dr. Shea offered a candid and deeply…
In this episode Dominic Bowen and Dr. Jamie Shea unpack NATO at a moment of historic change. Find out more about how fear has re-emerged as a unifying force within the Alliance, the political and economic challenges of reaching unprecedented defence spending levels, industrial bottlenecks and Ukraine’s role as a partner in innovation and supply,…
Written by Elisa Garbil – 01.09.2025 The Alaska summit, convened between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, was presented as a breakthrough moment of diplomacy, a supposed glimpse of how peace might be brokered after years of brutal war in Ukraine. Yet the event revealed less about genuine pathways to stability than about how both leaders envision a…
Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Today Dominic Bowen hosts David Dunn back on the podcast. They discuss the recent Alaskan Summit and its global implications. Find out more about the symbolic wins for Putin, and which ones they are exactly. The American unpreparedness and what its implications are, what the result is for Ukraine, how the EU decided to…
