geopolitics

European leaders talk about Gaza, Hormuz, Tehran and Moscow as though they carry weight there. The continent was not invited to the start of this year's main war, yet it keeps issuing statements. What does it actually want: peace, gas, security, or simply a seat at the table? And why is all this happening now, with gas storage nearly empty, missile stockpiles in the same state, and a budget dispute threatening a political crisis? I am writing from London, and I see the situation at very close range.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, has said American bases in Europe will become legitimate targets for Iranian strikes if the United States attacks Iran again. Is this bargaining, an attempt at intimidation, or the outline of a real plan? Can Iranian missiles actually reach Europe? And what happens to the continent's security if the words turn into action? I have gathered reports from Iranian, Western and regional sources and tried to make sense of them.

Globalization is not dead. It has stratified. Consumer goods still cross borders with the same old ease, but beneath the surface of the familiar world a new tectonics has emerged: chips, rare earths, energy and maritime chokepoints have become a battlefield. Economic efficiency, the god of the past thirty years, has yielded to a new idol: shock resilience. And whoever grasped this first is already rebuilding supply chains while the rest continue to believe the brochures about a "post-polar" world.

Experts describe the outcome in different ways: multipolarity, a "multiplex," modular alliances. They agree on one point: the old order is passing. I am Mikhail Azhgirevich, editor-in-chief of VIGIL Journal. Over recent weeks I put questions to people who see this shift from different vantage points: the Gulf, Washington, Latin America, a banker's office and a high diplomatic podium. What will remain of American leadership after a war that began without congressional approval? Who will fill the space it leaves?

On October 30, the Russian government submitted to the State Duma a bill "On International Development Assistance" (IDA). Will it become a real instrument of influence, or remain a framework for paperwork? Where will the money come from? And what changes for partner countries, for Russia and for its neighbors?

What the bill contains

The Kurds are perhaps the largest people in the region without a state of their own. For that reason, almost any major dispute between their neighbors sooner or later touches their interests. Where do the grievances come from? Whom have the Kurds backed, and whom have they opposed? What has changed in the past year?

Some people see the Kurds only as fighters, and others see them only as victims. To both groups I would say this: the conversation should begin with a map, not a weapon, because the Kurds did not draw the map.

With a ceasefire, a nuclear program and the fate of entire regions on the table, Washington has sent the president's son-in-law and an old friend to the negotiating table. What qualifies them? What does the American establishment make of it? And what do flamingos in Albania have to do with any of this?

How we see it in the United States

Who they are

Israeli voters gave neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot a decisive mandate. Meanwhile, Washington and Tel Aviv are preparing a new phase of the operation against Iran. How do the two developments connect? What do they mean for the region and the world? And where does the current alignment lead?

I am Dr. Hassan, VIGIL Journal's representative for the Middle East and North Africa. I want to take the two stories separately, then show where they intersect.

On October 20, the European Commission and the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, unveiled a strategy titled "Europe's Northern Neighbourhood." Security comes first among its four priorities. How far has the balance of power shifted? Are Brussels' ambitions realistic? And how might Moscow respond? We have gathered the facts and the views of two Russian experts.

What the document says

Almost ten months after the traumatic events that shook the country at the beginning of the year, Venezuela is navigating a complex and delicate political, economic, and military balance. To analyze in detail the foreign incursion of last January 3, the decisions made by the high leadership of the FANB (National Bolivarian Armed Forces), and the evolution of the institutional and economic framework to date, we spoke with military and strategic intelligence expert Colonel Irving Guilarte.