You’ve probably heard that the Cayman Islands are a tax haven for the rich, and there’s a strong chance you’ve never heard anything else about them. But the Cayman Islands are far more important to geopolitics than you’re probably aware because they are the tax-neutral legal plumbing for the global financial system, with funds reporting roughly 16 trillion USD in total assets under management. So what impact do the Cayman Islands really have on the world around us?
Read MoreWhen most of us think of Jamaica, we think of beach resorts and reggae, but Jamaica is actually a perfect example of how geopolitics works in practice. It’s a small island of just 2.8m whose modern politics were forged by a plantation-slavery economy, whose geography as a small Caribbean island influences everything about its dynamics, and whose government has to operate within those constraints. So how did Jamaica come to be, and what can it tell us about geopolitics?
Read MoreIn January 2026, the US conducted targeted strikes on Venezuela that ultimately decapitated the country’s government, placing President Nicolas Maduro in US custody and providing an avenue for US businesses to expand their operations into a country that has been a key US adversary for decades. Just weeks later, the US launched an even larger operation in Iran to kill the country’s Supreme Leader and degrade its military and nuclear infrastructure. And now reports indicate that the US may be preparing to conduct military operations against Cuba. These events have many similarities that can give us tremendous insight into the current administration’s priorities and strategy, but the question is, knowing what we know now, how and why would the US invade Cuba?
Read MoreIn June 2024, a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine called the Kazan pulled into harbor at Havana, Cuba. It was joined by a guided missile frigate, a fuel tanker, and a rescue tug. US destroyers and unmanned surface vessels shadowed them the entire way in, and though the Pentagon publicly waved it off, that single port call was the loudest signal in a very quiet relationship between Russia and Cuba that has been rebuilding since the Cold War ended. We all know the stories about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Soviet patronage, but how and why are the two countries collaborating today?
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