Geopolitics News & Analysis

Dawn of AI Geopolitics: Regulation, Norms, and Power Beyond Hardware

Generated by Google Gemini AI on June 19, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

States are over-securitizing inputs and under-governing outputs, leaving the most consequential domains of AI power largely unregulated and open to capture.

Anthropic’s Fable Debacle and the Perils of Dual-use AI Technologies

cc TechCrunch, modified, Dario Amodei at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

The debacle surrounding the launch of Fable by Anthropic is only the tip of the iceberg of dual-use AI. If effective safeguards are not established, the AI arms race ensures that dangerous models will fall into the hands of bad actors.

The Geopolitics of Geo-Engineering: Weather Warfare vs. Climate Security

Generated by Google Gemini AI on June 1, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality. Modification of this image (CC Nasa) - https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/hubble/en/

Geoengineering risks transforming the climate itself into an arena of geopolitical competition, where the atmosphere, sunlight, and weather systems become objects of strategic control.

Lessons Forgotten: Critical Minerals and Partisan Ideology in the U.S.

cc Obama White House, modified, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2009/11/17/us-and-china-towards-a-clean-energy-economy/ - President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao together at a reception before the formal state dinner at Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Nov. 17, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza) November 17, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Administrations from both sides of the aisle have left US critical minerals supply chains highly vulnerable amid a return to great power politics. But stockpiling initiatives like ‘Project Vault’ suggest that Washington is beginning to remember the old truism that economics and geopolitics are inseparable.

Bringing the Bullion Back: Geopolitics Returns to Global Gold Markets

Gold bullion, Generated by Google Gemini AI on May 25, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

The New York Fed’s vault remains the largest sovereign gold repository in the world, but recent withdrawals suggest that geopolitical considerations are increasingly tilting the balance toward domestic storage, even among longstanding US allies.

For Russia, Regional Instability Means Opportunity in Central Asia

cc kremlin.ru, modified, Second Russia – Central Asia Summit Vladimir Putin took part in the second Russia – Central Asia Summit, held in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/78180

Faced with geopolitical setbacks across Eurasia, Moscow is turning to Central Asia - one of the few regions where Russian institutional influence persists in structured form - to solidify its influence amid a shifting global order.

The Global Water Governance Gap Is Becoming Untenable

cc Arian Zwegers, modified, the shrinking Aral Sea - https://www.flickr.com/photos/azwegers/6226842732

Water is no longer a local or technical issue. It is a question of global stability, and the world's institutions need to start treating it as one.

Vietnam’s Starlink Pilot and Digital Sovereignty in Southeast Asia

Generated by Google Gemini AI on May 13, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality. Adapted from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Starlink_5-1_Launch_%287574134%29.jpeg; cc U.S. Space Force photo by Joshua Conti

Vietnam’s Starlink pilot reflects a new regulatory template for governing foreign-controlled endpoints, one that accepts the new geopolitical reality that AI compute facilities, cloud infrastructures, and data centers are assets of strategic concern to states.

Credibility Index: A Data-Driven Approach to Assessing the Resilience of US Power

STRAIT OF HORMUZ (Oct. 29, 2011) The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) transits the Strait of Hormuz. Bataan is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts. (U.S. Navy photo by Quartermaster 1st Class Thomas E. Dowling/Released) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Official_U.S._Navy_Imagery_-_Day_is_done_gone_the_sun..jpg

Structural indicators of hegemony like military, institutional, and financial capacity suggest that the US global power is far more likely to decline than collapse outright.

AI with Chinese Characteristics

Generated by Google Gemini AI on May 4, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

What does victory for Beijing in the US-China AI competition look like? Tighter control for the CCP at home and elevated criminal, military, censorship, and data security risks abroad.

Why States Do What They Do: An IR Theory Field Guide

Generated by Google Gemini AI on April 22, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

A field guide to the four theories that actually explain international relations. None alone can explain the evolution of international society. But taken together, they are the best and only way to decode complex international events.

Deficits Risk Sidelining Austria from EU Geopolitical Strategy

eurostat_austria-2026-04-14-970 copy

If Vienna fails to restore its fiscal credibility, it risks becoming a “rule taker” rather than a rule maker at a time when Europe faces multiple geopolitical challenges.

Distributed Risk: Open-Source Software as Strategic Infrastructure

Generated by Google Gemini AI on April 13, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

The 2024 XZ incident illustrates how open-source software (OSS) has become strategic infrastructure in the global economy, opening up new strategic vulnerabilities and new pathways to geopolitical leverage.

Sovereign Ecosystems: How Distributed Authority Is Rewiring Global Order

Generated by Google Gemini AI on April 8, 2026. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

From the Sahel to Iraq, authority is produced through negotiation among distributed actors rather than imposed by centralized institutions. US diplomacy continues to ignore these sovereign ecosystems at its own peril.

The Strait of Hormuz and the Power of Chokepoints

cc European Space Agency, modified, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middle_Eastern_terrain.jpg

The security of a few narrow waterways underpins much of the global economy, and one of them has effectively been closed.

No Leverage, No Exit: Turkey’s Dealmaking in Somalia

cc AMISOM, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud open the new terminal of Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia on January 25. 2015 AMISOM Photo / Ilyas Ahmed / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2015_01_25_Turkish_President_Visit_to_Somalia-1_%2816176887607%29.jpg

Turkey’s dealmaking in Somalia over the past decade tends to be assessed in isolation. But when the whole picture is considered a new model of middle power engagement begins to emerge, complete with new risks and structural dependencies.

Interests and Armageddon: The Third Gulf War Shakes West Asia

cc Napishtim, Stone carved Faravahar in Persepolis., modified, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Persepolis_-_carved_Faravahar.JPG

Examining the great power interests and religious millenarianism fueling the US-Israel Iran war.

Balkanizing Iran? US Strategy Risks Protracted Ethnic Conflict

Kurdish YPG in Syria in 2017, cc Kurdishstruggle, modified, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurdishstruggle/30827969540

Short-term, the policy of arming and supporting ethnic proxies could hasten the demise of the Islamic regime in Iran. But the longer-term blowback against US interests may not be worth the risk.

Iran’s Water Crisis: A National Security Imperative

Generated by Google Gemini AI on December 10, 2025. All flags, maps, and likenesses contained within this image are not necessarily accurate representations of reality.

Iran’s national security is no longer defined solely by armies, weapons, or borders—it now hinges on something far more fundamental: water.

Geopolitics of the GIUK Gap: Past, Present, and Future

GIUK Gap; Made with geographical data from Natural Earth.

The GIUK Gap – a mainstay of 20th century naval strategy – is taking on new importance amid mounting Russian naval activity, Arctic expansion, and emerging hybrid threats.

More Geopolitics Articles