Insights

As the world’s largest grain-importing region in the world, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has felt acutely the impact of the Ukraine conflict’s disruption to global food production and exports. The MENA is an agro-ecologically diverse region, ranging from the Gulf, where there are no permanent rivers or lakes and minimal rainfall, to Egypt and Iraq, where river…

Welcome back to the Global Month Ahead, our monthly podcast looking at the stories that will define the month to come.

Commenting on Europe’s gas crisis, the prime minister of Belgium recently said that Europe would face “terrible winters” for the next five to ten years. The warning by the Belgian premier is echoed by the chief executive of Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, who has said that Europe may need to ration access to energy for several years as it weans itself off…

On January 10th, the foreign ministers of four Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, concluded a first-of-its-kind Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) visit to China to consolidate ties with Beijing. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Gulf counterparts in the city of Wuxi in eastern China and subsequently hosted the foreign ministers of Turkey and…

This episode is part of our annual conference 'The Politics of'. This year's edition, 'The Politics of Decoupling', will present a global perspective on China’s industrial and political strategy for the next decade, and how it will affect its relationship with western-aligned countries.

Energy prices have been rising across the world over the past weeks. Energy prices fluctuations have already occurred in the past, but this time the world is emerging from a global pandemic and high gas and power prices could hamper recovery. End consumers impoverished by covid-19 are now faced with higher bills, and businesses are either pushed out of the market or…