When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, all major parties got it wrong. Ukraine considered a full-scale invasion unlikely and was preparing for an escalation in the eastern Donbas region. Russia had …
Articles by: "Robert Wihtol"
U Thant’s rise to become UN secretary-general, the world’s top diplomat, was, to say the least, unlikely. Thant grew up in a small town in what was then rural Burma, at the time part of …
On New Year’s Eve in 1977, US president Jimmy Carter hailed Iran as ‘an island of stability in one of the more troubled regions of the world’, which he credited to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s …
In July 1940, just days after the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov warned the Lithuanian deputy prime minister that ‘in the future, small nations will have to disappear.’ The Baltic states …
For centuries, the Arctic was considered the exclusive domain of polar bears, exotic marine life and the occasional intrepid explorer. However, as climate change has thawed the polar ice, it has also opened up new …
Alexander Stubb has had a busy two years. Since being inaugurated as Finland’s president in March 2024, he has become one of Europe’s most visible leaders, shuttling between negotiations in Brussels, Davos, Kyiv and Washington, …
When Barack Obama took over the US presidency in 2009, North Korea could barely muster one nuclear weapon and had just a handful of missiles that could reach Japan. Yet despite tight international sanctions, tough …
Robert McNamara was considered one of the brightest stars of his generation. He excelled at Harvard Business School, where he went on to teach, rose through the ranks of the Ford Motor Company to become …
Jens Stoltenberg was secretary general of NATO during a particularly turbulent decade, 2014 to 2024. During his tenure, European unity was shaken by Brexit, the alliance’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s frontal attack on Ukraine, Turkish …
Zbigniew Brzezinski was a lifelong Cold War hawk who was deeply suspicious of the Soviet Union. The invasion of Poland by Russian and German troops in 1939 left a lasting impression on the young immigrant, …
More than 30 years after his death, North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung’s legacy endures. This sets Kim apart from tyrants such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Francisco Franco, whose deaths were catalysts for political …
When Patrick McGee decided to write Apple in China, he wanted to focus on the company’s weaknesses rather than its strengths. Reviewing the evidence, he soon realised that it all pointed to Apple’s China strategy. …