When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine inherited custody of roughly 1900 strategic nuclear warheads. But they gave these up in exchange for security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK, including a pledge to respect Ukraine’s borders and never use force against it. So would Ukraine have been invaded if they hadn’t given up those nuclear weapons?
Read MoreEurope
How does France riot so much without collapsing?
in Europe
France protests more often, and more disruptively, than almost any other wealthy democracy, with strike days per worker in its private sector alone running about five times Germany’s rate. But while French cabinets come and go, all those riots and fires have never brought down the Fifth Republic itself. So why does France have so many protests, and why are they seemingly not a threat to the country’s overall stability?
Read MoreWhy does Hungary speak a language from western Siberia?
in Europe
The Hungarian language is more closely related to languages spoken in Western Siberia than to any other language in Europe, including its distant cousins Finnish and Estonian. Hungarians are culturally distinct too. But why is Hungary so different from its neighbors, and what impact does it have on geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy is Iceland a NATO member if it lacks a military?
in Europe
Iceland has no army, navy, or air force. But at the same time it’s a founding member of NATO. So why is a country without a proper military such a key part of a military alliance?
Read MoreWhy does Estonia run a “data embassy” in Luxembourg?
in Europe
You probably don't know that Estonia keeps a copy of its government data in Luxembourg. In fact, it's one of only two countries known to run a data embassy abroad. But why would Estonia want to back up its most sensitive government information in a foreign country, and what can this tell us about Estonia's geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreWhy is Andorra ruled by the French president and a Catholic bishop?
in Europe
Andorra is one of the smallest countries in the world, and it has some very strange geopolitical dynamics. While it is sovereign, its two co-princes are always the French president and a bishop selected by the Pope, meaning that Andorrans elect their own government but have no say over who their heads of state are. But why is Andorra set up like this, and what impact is this having on European affairs?
Read MoreWhy isn’t Italy a global power?
in Europe
The Italian peninsula has some of the oldest geopolitical history on the planet. You might think that modern Italy should have grown powerful as a result, but though Italy is in the G7 and is Europe’s second-largest manufacturer, the country is more defined by its burdens than its abilities. So what’s keeping Italy from being geopolitically powerful?
Read MoreWhy does the Pope have one of the best intelligence networks on Earth?
in Europe
The Catholic Church wields one of the oldest and widest intelligence networks in the world. But it’s not like the Pope is ordering assassinations or operating a network of spies. So if Vatican City doesn’t even have an intelligence agency, why is it so good at collecting intelligence?
Read MoreHow do Europe’s nobles still shape countries they no longer rule?
in Europe
Nobles once ruled most of Europe, and though most of those countries are now democratic states, the nobility is still around. They've passed down their titles all the way to the present day, even in places where those titles have no formal or legal standing. But in what ways do nobles still affect the affairs of those countries?
Read MoreWhy does Wales still speak Welsh when Ireland stopped speaking Irish?
in Europe
About 72k people in Ireland speak the Irish language daily outside a classroom. In Wales, a country with half the population, the number speaking Welsh daily runs into the hundreds of thousands, and in Gwynedd it is still the majority language. Both languages have been shrinking for a century, but only one of them still has places where it is simply what people speak. So why did Welsh hold onto its communities when Irish didn't, and what does that have to do with geopolitics?
Read MoreHow does Russia’s Kaliningrad survive surrounded by NATO?
The exclave of Kaliningrad is not only disconnected from the rest of Russia, it’s also wedged between two NATO countries, making it an obvious target during a potential war. So how does Kaliningrad survive without a connection to the rest of Russia, and just how vulnerable is it?
Read MoreWhy can’t Finland defend its most strategic islands?
in Europe
Tucked between Finland and Sweden is an archipelago called Aland. It belongs to Finland and is strategically critical because it commands the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, but it is autonomous and unexpectedly demilitarized. So why aren’t there military forces in Aland, and will that change amid threats from Russia?
Read MoreWhy is Denmark so powerful when it’s so small?
in Europe
The average person’s only real connection with Denmark is a LEGO set, a medication they take, or a fish they bought from the supermarket. But while Denmark is small, it wields outsized geopolitical influence. So why is Denmark disproportionately important?
Read MoreIs Russia weaponizing Russians in the Baltics?
Estonia and Latvia are home to hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking non-citizens, and since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has worked hard to turn them into leverage. But why are all of these people in the Baltic States to begin with, and what impact do they actually have on Europe's security?
Read MoreWhy is Corsica fighting for autonomy from France?
in Europe
Corsica may be part of France, but it wasn’t always that way, and now the island is on the verge of gaining autonomy. But how would autonomy even work for a place that’s so reliant on mainland France?
Read MoreWhy is tiny Luxembourg so important to Europe?
in Europe
Even if you’ve heard of Luxembourg, you probably don’t know much about it. It may be a tiny landlocked country, but today it has the highest GDP per capita in the world thanks to a financial sector that is both its greatest asset and its most critical vulnerability. It’s also hugely important in European politics. So how did Luxembourg become so disproportionately wealthy and influential, and how does this affect the country’s geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreWhy does the EU exist?
in Europe
The European Union is something we kind of take for granted today, but it hasn’t always existed. Before 1993, there was no EU. European countries had spent decades stitching together trade deals and shared institutions, but every country still had its own currency, and a giant tangle of geopolitical dynamics made European affairs incredibly complicated. So why did the EU actually come into being, and how do those reasons still affect geopolitics today?
Read MoreWhy hasn’t Scotland gained independence from the UK?
in Europe
The Scottish independence movement has been pushing for Scotland to split from the United Kingdom for literally centuries. But these days, the picture is a bit more complicated than it was hundreds of years ago, thanks to a tangle of issues including political strife, Brexit, and nuclear weapons. So what exactly is preventing Scotland from gaining independence, and what impact would a Scottish departure have on geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy hasn’t Ireland reunified?
in Europe
Ireland has been split into separate parts since 1921, but after over 100 years of political strife and public violence aiming to bring Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland together again, the prospect could actually be on the table in a matter of years. But why are the two parts separate to begin with, and how would their reunification influence geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy would the US want to take Greenland when it already operates freely there?
in Europe, North America
The US has been openly campaigning to acquire Greenland since 2025, even refusing to rule out the use of force against one of its own NATO allies to obtain it. But what many people don’t know is that the US military has had a substantial presence in Greenland already for decades, including its northernmost permanent military installation. So how is the US allowed to operate in Greenland, what impact has the current administration had on this dynamic, and what role does Pituffik Space Base have on all of this?
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