What a person needs first is not education but upbringing
Al-Farabi on upbringing before instruction, the ruler's pursuit of true happiness, and moderation as the root of virtue.
Europe
The North–South Transport Corridor and Iran's pivotal role
The International North–South Transport Corridor is an ambitious 7,200-km multimodal route from St Petersburg to Mumbai. Because every branch of it runs through Iran, the country has become the corridor's pivotal link.
Whoever lies in the language of words gives himself away in the language of gestures, which he does not notice…
Oswald Spengler on the language of lies, the press and war, and culture turning into civilisation.
There is a pattern: civilisations rise when they are able to respond creatively to the challenges around them…
Arnold J. Toynbee on the pattern behind the rise and fall of civilisations, the components of culture and the surest way to reach a goal.
Why Chinese manufacturers dominate the solar panel and battery industries
The author's case for why Chinese manufacturers dominate the global solar panel and battery sectors: long-term state industrial strategy, subsidies, self-sufficiency in minerals, scale, automation and cheap electricity.
Battery cell production costs: China, South Korea, the EU and the US
The chart compares the average cost of producing battery cells in China, South Korea, the European Union and the United States, and shows why the US and the EU lag behind China.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need
Cicero on the good life — a garden, a library, true friendship — and on the republic he defended to the end.
Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard…
Zbigniew Brzezinski on Ukraine as the geopolitical pivot of Eurasia, and on how the West should deal with China.
Never humble yourself before another person
Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa on self-respect, generosity and the discipline of silence, with an account of the Persian writer who gave Arabic its Kalila and Dimna.
When I had money I bought books
Erasmus of Rotterdam on books, friendship and self-love, with an account of the humanist scholar the Northern Renaissance called its prince.
R. Kjellén's doctrine of the 'anatomy of state power' and the 'great powers'
Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922) was a Swedish geographer and political figure who considered himself a pupil of Friedrich Ratzel. His doctrine treated the state as a living organism and defined the great powers by three spatial factors.
Karl Haushofer's theory of pan-regions and the continental bloc (for those interested in geopolitics and the geopolitical processes unfolding in the world)
Karl Haushofer (1869–1946) was born in Munich, Germany, into a professor's family. He served in the army for more than 20 years and became the author of an original theory of the continental bloc and of pan-regions.
The Global Gateway strategy of the European Union
The European Union's Global Gateway strategy aims to speed up digital, energy and environmental transformation in emerging and developing economies, mobilising €300 billion of investment by 2027.
China controls 62% of the global electric vehicle market
China controls 62% of the global electric vehicle market and holds on to its lead in electric transport.
The Development Road international transport corridor (ITC)
The Development Road international transport corridor (ITC) is intended to link the Persian Gulf with Europe through Iraq and Türkiye.
The impact of artificial intelligence on the future labour market: which jobs may disappear and which may remain
According to an IMF report, artificial intelligence affects occupations differently: some face a high risk of replacement, others are safe.
In response to the 10% US tariffs on imports from China
In response to the 10% tariffs the United States imposed on imports from China, Beijing introduced additional duties of 15% on US coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and 10% on American oil, agricultural machinery, large-engine cars and pickups.
How fast things change in the world of technological competition
In the 1990s Europe, the United States and Japan made all of the world's semiconductors. Their combined share has since collapsed, while China has gone from 0% to 24%.
China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, linking Pakistan's Gwadar and Karachi ports to China's Xinjiang region. Its cost has risen from an initial $46 billion to $65 billion.
Pakistan seeks closer economic ties with Central Asia
Pakistan's location makes it a natural bridge between landlocked Central Asia and the Arabian Sea, according to The News on Sunday. Regional trade integration could add up to 1.7% to Pakistan's GDP.
Eastern sea corridor between Chennai and Vladivostok
The eastern sea corridor linking the Indian port city of Chennai with Vladivostok, Russia's largest Pacific port, is back in service. It cuts cargo delivery times from 40 to 24 days compared with the Suez Canal route.
Record-low birth rates in the West and Japan
Birth rates have fallen to record lows across the West and Japan. In 2023 the EU recorded 3.665 million births, the fewest since records began in 1961, and the figure was down 5.5% on the year before.
Kazakhstan's strategic choice
Kazakhstan declined full membership of BRICS at the bloc's October summit in Kazan, choosing instead to watch how the group develops while diversifying its foreign-policy ties and keeping close engagement with the West, The Diplomat reports.
ITC India–Middle East–Europe
In September 2023, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, the United States, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the EU announced plans for the India–Middle East–Europe Corridor (IMEC). It is meant to speed up trade and deepen economic integration between Asia, the Gulf and Europe — but war in the Middle East now threatens it.
Friedrich Naumann's concept of Central (Middle) Europe
A further instalment on the thinkers of the German school of geopolitics, this time Friedrich Naumann's wartime vision of a German-led Mitteleuropa.
The gas revolution in the United States
A genuine gas revolution is under way in US energy, marking a shift to a new technological order in the economy — one in which natural gas is becoming America's main primary energy source.
Rudolf Kjellén's doctrine of the anatomy of state power and the great powers
Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922) was a Swedish geographer and political figure who coined the term geopolitics. His doctrine treated the state as a living organism and ranked the great powers by space, cohesion and freedom of movement.
The global market for industrial robots
According to the International Federation of Robotics, 545,000 industrial robots were installed at factories worldwide in 2022. Asia took 74% of them and China alone 53%.
The Draghi report on EU competitiveness
On 9 September this year former ECB president Mario Draghi presented the European Commission with a report on the future of the European economy, arguing that the EU must mobilise €750–800 billion a year to stay competitive.
Mackinder's geographical pivot of history
Halford John Mackinder (1861–1947) was one of the great figures in the history of geopolitics, whose 1904 paper set out the Heartland theory that would shape the field for a century.
Economic growth in the Global South
The fastest-growing economies now lie in Latin America, Africa and Asia, the regions known together as the Global South. Guyana's GDP doubled between 2021 and 2022, and African countries are set for average growth of 6–8% through 2028.
The Global North and the Global South
The Cold War divided the planet into three worlds; after the Soviet bloc collapsed, the concepts of the Global North and the Global South took shape.
The Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan
The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of land in the Wakhan region of Badakhshan Province in eastern Afghanistan.
Growth in China's electricity consumption
According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand in China's economy will grow to 10,498 TWh by 2025, more than double US demand of 4,475 TWh.
Global lithium reserves
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), identified lithium resources worldwide grew significantly in 2023, to about 98 million tonnes.
Two brothers
A fable by the Georgian writer Sulhan-Saba Orbeliani in which two brothers live side by side, each secretly pouring his own grain into the other's pit.
International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC)
On 12 September 2000, at the second Euro-Asian Transport Conference in St Petersburg, Russia, India and Iran signed an intergovernmental agreement to create the International North–South Transport Corridor.
World GDP growth over 2,000 years
A World Bank chart tracing the growth of the world economy over the past two thousand years. World GDP grew by just 20% in the first millennium but has doubled every 20–25 years in recent decades.
Russia raises its key policy rate
On 13 September 2024 the Bank of Russia raised its key rate to 19%, even as other major central banks were cutting. The increase is feeding through to mortgage rates, which have climbed above 21%.
Comparing the G7 and BRICS
According to the IMF, the combined GDP of the G7 reached $45.9 trillion in 2023, one and a half times the size of the BRICS economies.
The rise in global military spending in 2023
Defence spending rose at its fastest rate in a decade in 2023, reaching $2.443 trillion worldwide, with NATO accounting for 55% of the total.
The world's largest economies by 2050: Saudi Arabia's nuclear programme
Saudi Arabia's decision not to renew its era-defining security agreement with the United States, the sale of oil for dollars, reflects both America's declining global influence and where most Saudi oil is now sold.
The world's largest economies by 2050: Saudi Arabia's nuclear programme
Saudi Arabia plans up to 16 nuclear reactors worth more than $100 billion under Vision 2030, following the example of Türkiye, Egypt, Iran and the UAE.
The world's largest economies by 2050: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is the largest regional power on the Arabian Peninsula and the birthplace of Islam, which arose in Mecca and Medina in the 7th century.
NATO
Poland spends the most on defence of any NATO member, at 3.9% of GDP, while the US is the main beneficiary of rising allied defence budgets.
Japan's electricity generation
Japan's Sixth Energy Plan targets 38% renewables and 20% nuclear by 2030, while coal and gas lose ground. Yet total power generation has been falling since 2010.
Aluminium production in the United States
This chart tracks aluminium production in the United States and its share of world output. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US made more than half of the world's aluminium; today it produces almost none.