Russia transformed from an authoritarian system into a dictatorship following constitutional changes in 2020 that allowed Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036, but de facto made Putin president for life. Since then, collective leadership has been replaced with rule by a dictator of a kind last seen in Joseph Stalin’s USSR. The emergence of a dictatorship … Continued

What would the UK's foreign policy look like under Sir Keir Starmer? According to Professor Azeem Ibrahim, whose paper warning of the impact of Jeremy Corbyn’s foreign policy made front-page news in 2019, Starmer's approach to foreign policy is “more assertive and more serious than that of any Labour leader since the general election of 2010 but still … Continued

Syria is the home of over half a million killed, and more than 13 million displaced across the world. At least 100,000 Syrians still languish in the country’s prisons, and families of hundreds of thousands wait for confirmation of the fate of their loved ones – many of which were likely tortured to death. While … Continued

Since the beginning of the millennium, when Vladimir Putin took power in Russia, authoritarian leaders have come to dominate global politics. Self-styled strongmen have risen to power in Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Brasilia, Budapest, Ankara, Riyadh and Washington. How and why did this new style of strongman leadership arrive? How likely is it to lead to … Continued

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain's twentieth-century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, 'Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.' But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even … Continued