We all know that wars cost money and damage economies. But you probably don’t know that insurance has a shocking amount of influence on conflicts. Imagine if your car insurance charged you extra every time you drove through a dangerous neighborhood, and could raise that charge overnight or refuse to cover you there at all. That’s roughly how ships are insured in war zones, and it can decide whether a shipping company sails through a conflict or goes around it. But how exactly does this influence geopolitics?
Read MoreIf a nuclear missile launched toward the US, it would take 20-30 minutes from an infrared satellite’s first detection to the retaliatory missiles leaving their silos. The president’s actual decision window is compressed to around six minutes, within which they must decide whether the attack is legitimate and how to respond, effectively choosing whether to end the world. But how do these nuclear launch procedures vary from country to country, and what do they reveal?
Read MoreMost people don’t know that nuclear weapons go bad, like bananas getting overripe on your kitchen counter. It’s true: tritium decays by roughly 5.5% every year, and without it a nuclear warhead with a yield of 100 kilotons would yield only 0.3 kilotons. But why is this the case, and what impact does it have on geopolitics?
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