Articles 

Flexibility and mobility are key factors when fighting any battle – in politics this tends towards identifying subsets of the wider electorate and making unpredictable policy platforms. The overall effect is for further instability as such groupings find it very hard...

• Iran: rhetoric from the U.S. and Iranian sides increased, with threats and counter-threats. The attack on a Revolutionary Guards parade (killing 25, including civilians) increases instability and could yet bolster hardliners in the regime. Israel claimed that Iran...

• Syria: intense diplomacy between Turkey, Russia and Iran resulted in a deal to prevent a full assault of Idlib. A buffer zone will be created, with Turkey sending troops, and a process implemented to sort the moderate rebels from the jihadists. This is fraught with...

• Trump-Kim: the White House admitted that preparations were being made for a second summit between the president and the North Korean leader. This is another attempt to turn positive noises into tangible results. The South Korean president is pushing but the U.S....

• Trump: domestic problems are not receding, with a new book by well-respected author Bob Woodward painting a damaging picture of the current administration. A senior member of the Trump team apparently described themselves as part of the resistance in a New York...

As politics has reasserted itself - ahead of finance - in controlling economic decision-making, many heads of states have grabbed additional power. Key to such a process is the power to influence the ‘message’ and raw information provided by the media to domestic and...