Geopolitics and Security
International affairs, wars, militaries, intelligence, and diplomacy, including Israel's wars and external security.
#5515: Who Owns What in Intelligence?
Armies built spy agencies first — half a century before Mossad. How military and civilian intelligence divide the work, and who enforces the line.
#5510: Six Churches, One Roof, 270 Years of Deadlock
Six churches share Jerusalem's holiest sites — and none can move a chair without the other five agreeing. Here's how that happened.
#5509: The Long Tail of Spy Stations
How far does the CIA's station map actually reach? A 1961 memo to JFK and the agency's own map archive tell two very different stories.
#5508: Life After the Oval Office: Orange Juice and Security
Carter went home to Plains, Bush took up painting, Obama stayed on stage — but all three kept the detail. Can a former president ever just buy oran...
#5498: Who Was a Superpower Before America?
The word "superpower" was invented in 1944. So how do you build a list of them stretching back to Akkad?
#5496: Taking Down Jerusalem's 7km Border, Street by Street
Barbed wire, minefields, and a wax-pencil line: how Jerusalem's seven-kilometre border was physically torn down after 1967.
#5495: Musrara: Growing Up on Jerusalem's Pencil-Drawn Border
How a border drawn with wax pencils in 1948 split Musrara's homes in two — and shaped the neighborhood that raised the Israeli Black Panthers.
#5479: Why Number Porting Takes 30 Minutes
Routing a ported number takes milliseconds. So why does the SIM swap take hours? We trace the signalling behind "keep your number.
#5445: Israel's Periphery: Why It's Not About Distance
What "peripheria" really means in Israel — and why a $10B Intel fab sits in a town that still tops unemployment.
#5441: Dollar Plumbing: Why Bessent's Iran Threat Has Teeth
One line from Treasury can ground an airline worldwide. The reason lives in New York's clearing houses, not the currency itself.
#5440: What Does a Space Force Actually Do All Day?
Rockets get the coverage, but the real work happens at consoles on the ground. What 15,000 Guardians actually do.
#5439: Life at 76 Degrees North: Inside Pituffik Space Base
A few hundred people, four months of darkness, and a $100M-a-year mission on thawing permafrost.
#5377: Is the U.S.-Israel Split a Blip or a Realignment?
Gallup's 2026 first-ever Palestinian sympathy lead isn't a flip toward Palestinians — it's a decade-long collapse in support for Israel.
#5357: Pan-Arabism, the Umma, and Why the Arab League Can't Enforce Anything
What pan-Arabism actually claims, why it isn't the umma, and why 22 members can't stop sanctioning each other.
#5348: Greenland's 56,000 People, Two Big Powers, and One Vague Deal
85% of Greenlanders oppose joining the U.S. — yet Washington and Copenhagen are about to sign a security deal about their island.
#5347: What "On the Sidelines" Actually Means in Diplomacy
A "sidelines" meeting sounds casual. It's actually a fully scripted format with its own rules — and the Greenland signing shows why the label matters.
#5346: Why the UN's Biggest Week Is All About the Sidelines
The UN General Assembly meets year-round — so why do heads of state fly in for one frenzied week each September?
#5338: Iran Is Rebuilding Parchin. Again.
Satellite imagery shows Iran rebuilding the Taleghan Two site at Parchin for the second time in 18 months — this time under a tarp.
#5315: What It's Like Living Next Door to a Prime Minister
Motorcades, megaphones at 5:30 a.m., and a three-meter wall — what neighbors of heads of state actually endure.
#5314: Private Cyber Skills vs. Government Ops
What actually changes when a cybersecurity operator crosses from protecting a company to protecting a state?