Koh-i-Noor Diamond: The Mountain of Light and the Throne of Lahore
A Stone Older Than Any Modern Border The Koh-i-Noor is usually described as an Indian diamond, and the description misleads. When the stone was mined, probably at Kollur in the Deccan, no state called India existed. There was no Indian passport, flag, constitution or citizenship. There was a vast subcontinent of competing kingdoms, sultanates…
Achilles Shield: Greece Buys Into Israel’s War Economy, and Türkiye Is Watching
On 31 August 2026, officials from Israel and Greece signed an air-defence agreement in Israel that Israel’s ministry called the largest defence export deal in the history of the two countries’ relations. Israel’s Ministry of Defence director general, Amir Baram, and his Greek counterpart, Ioannis Bouras, put their names to a government-to-government contract worth…
Beijing’s Non-Recognition of the Union Territory of Ladakh: India–China Cartographic Contestation Deepens
China says it has never recognised the Union Territory of Ladakh and has called India’s decision to standardise 28 place names there “illegal and invalid”. Beijing’s foreign ministry responded on 13 October, eleven days after India’s Ministry of Home Affairs placed the names on official Survey of India maps. India’s Standardisation of 28 Place…
Mehrgarh: The Cradle Before the Cities
An Unlikely Discovery on the Kachi Plain In 1974, a French archaeological team led by Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige began excavating a site at the foot of the Bolan Pass in Balochistan, Pakistan. They could scarcely have known they were uncovering one of the most important prehistoric sites in South Asia. The Mehrgarh…
Moscow Format on Afghanistan: Russia Praises the Taliban While Terrorism Concerns Go Unanswered
The eighth Moscow Format meeting on Afghanistan was meant to showcase regional coordination. Instead it exposed how divided Afghanistan’s neighbours are on the Taliban and on terrorism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks drew as much attention for what he left out as for what he said. The summit ended without a joint…
Is Britain Heading for War? Fairford and the War Book
Britain is not heading for war in the conventional sense. There has been no declaration and no mobilisation, and no minister, military chief or intelligence agency has stated that an attack is imminent. The more precise concern is that Britain has become an exposed rear area of a wider regional conflict: a territory whose…
A Sacred Red Line: The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement and the Imperative of Collective Deterrence
The security architecture of the Middle East has entered an acutely volatile and unprecedented phase following the latest Houthi aggression directed towards the holiest sanctuary of Islam. On 16 September 2026, coalition air defence systems successfully intercepted an armed unmanned aerial vehicle launched by the Iran-backed militia just prior to its entry into the…
The Cardiff Memorandum: Constitutional Fallout and the Fracturing of the UK
On 14 September 2026, the nationalist leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland convened in Cardiff to sign a historic Memorandum of Understanding. John Swinney of the Scottish National Party, Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru, and Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin, alongside Mary Lou McDonald, formally declared that Westminster’s time is coming to…
Papering Over the Fissures: The Illusion of Consensus in an Expanded BRICS
The eighteenth BRICS summit closed in New Delhi with a joint declaration in hand, a result that India’s government has presented as a diplomatic triumph. Given that two earlier ministerial meetings this year had failed to produce any agreed text at all, the achievement is not trivial. Yet a closer reading of the New…
Occupation Cannot Grant Sovereignty: Britain Holds the Line on Israel and the Law
On 8 September 2026, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband delivered the most significant British statement on Israel and Palestine in a generation. Standing at the despatch box as a self-described “proud British Jew,” Miliband announced a comprehensive package of measures: a ban on goods imported from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, sanctions on companies…
