Religion
In the year 1900, Africa had about 9.6 million Christians, but today it has around 750m. In many ways, Christianity’s center of gravity has shifted south of the Sahara, where African church leaders are now decisively winning internal fights within the Anglican, Catholic, and Methodist worlds. But why is this happening, and what impact does it have on geopolitics?
Read MoreThe 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 MoreYou might not realize it, but Iraq and Iran share a lot more than just similar names. They are so geopolitically intertwined that it is very difficult to talk about one without eventually needing to talk about the other. But other than being neighbors, why are Iraq and Iran so tethered together?
Read MoreThe Western image of Buddhism as a completely serene and apolitical religion is not really accurate. Buddhist monks have blessed armies. Buddhists have run nationalist political parties and helped commit crimes against humanity. Today, Buddhism is a dominant religion across much of Asia, but how does it actually influence geopolitics?
Read MoreVatican City is the smallest country in the world, with just half a square kilometer of land and under a thousand residents, and it’s the only country in the world that is fully surrounded by another country’s capital. Consequently, Vatican City and Italy share a really complex and fascinating history together, particularly when it comes to the way they engage with the rest of the world. So how do the Vatican and Italy coexist when it comes to geopolitics?
Read MoreYou probably never heard that on Christmas Day 2025, US Tomahawk missiles hit Islamic extremist targets in the state of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria. These were the first ever direct US missile strikes against Nigeria’s insurgencies, but the more interesting aspect of this is that it’s a symptom of the fact that the Nigerian government doesn’t have oversight of the country’s security. Today, Nigeria relies on many different security architectures that vary in effectiveness from region to region and often barely speak the same language, making coordination difficult at best. So why is Nigeria’s security architecture so scattered?
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