Category: Geopolitics & Intelligence

Shuttered shopfronts in a Middle Eastern bazaar at dusk with scattered leaflets on wet cobblestones and distant fire glow through tear gas haze.

The Arson Investigator: How Western sanctions built Iran’s bonfire; and now, the firebugs demand to lead the rescue

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Every empire tells itself its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate. Edward Said wrote that about Iraq. It reads as though written yesterday, about Iran. New two-part series from Urban Wronski examining how Western sanctions engineered Iran’s economic collapse — and why the same powers now present themselves as liberators. Part 1: The Arson Investigator.

Bondi’s Blood, Herzog’s Shield: How Australia’s Grief was Hijacked for Geopolitics

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The Bondi massacre exposed more than a failure of gun laws. It revealed a political class willing to fold a community’s grief into a diplomatic script—inviting a leader accused of incitement to genocide to stand as the symbol of Australia’s solidarity. This is the story of how sorrow was weaponised, dissent was crushed, and the rule of law was suspended in the name of comfort.

The US’s Multi‑Front War: A House of Cards

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President Trump’s “Caracas raid,” enabled by the mysterious “Discombobulator,” epitomized a “Butch Cassidy” approach to international relations: a quick smash-and-grab to seize vital resources. Yet, as the rusty reality of Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure and a $200 billion repair bill quickly proved, the high-tech crowbar of the Discombobulator couldn’t fix what decades of neglect and sanctions had broken. Now, as a similar high-stakes gambit unfolds in the Persian Gulf against Iran, leaders like Brazil’s Lula caution against the “terrorism on an industrial scale” that comes with mistaking a tactical victory for a sustainable policy.