Where the tankers go oil power follows
The world’s most profitable tanker routes are exposing a new geography of oil power, where the decisive variables are no longer miles sailed, but ships, scarcity, chokepoints and strategic dependence
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MIDDLE EAST
Xiaoyu Lu: “A China–U.S. clash is entirely avoidable — and the decisive choice lies largely in Washington”
As Xi Jinping again invokes the “Thucydides Trap” in Washington, Peking University professor Xiaoyu Lu tells GeoTrends why China–U.S. conflict remains avoidable — and examines Taiwan, the Middle East, Europe and Piraeus
General Jamil el-Sayyed: “Israel should withdraw first — then Lebanon can deal with Hezbollah’s weapons”
General Jamil el-Sayyed, former Director General of Lebanon’s General Security and member of parliament, speaks to GeoTrends about Hezbollah’s weapons, Israel, Iran, Syria, Türkiye, and the limits of Lebanon’s ability to defend itself
Iranian scholar Roxana Nicknami on why international law and deterrence will shape the next Iran crisis
Roxana Nicknami, Professor of European Studies at the University of Tehran, examines the unraveling Iran–U.S. ceasefire, the legal foundations of deterrence, verification failures, and why sustainable regional stability ultimately depends on credible institutions rather than coercion
Dr. Foad Izadi: “Iran’s next deterrent is the Strait of Hormuz”
Dr. Foad Izadi, Professor of American Studies at the University of Tehran and a specialist in U.S. foreign policy, explains how Tehran interprets the war’s outcome, the ceasefire and the strategic lessons shaping its next move
One nautical mile
Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open for commercial shipping — then reversed course thirty hours later. The Notice to Mariners it published tells a different story than the headlines did
The conflict that doesn’t close the Strait — it rewrites the map
A silent transformation is reshaping global trade as geopolitical tension in the Middle East disrupts reliability, not flow, forcing shipping, energy markets, and supply chains to adapt to persistent uncertainty
What have the Americans ever done for us?
From Hiroshima to Guantánamo, from Guatemala to Iraq: as American hegemony fractures loudly and in real time, history demands we finally ask what the world’s last empire is now leaving behind — and for whom
Storm on Europe’s horizon: geopolitics and the looming migration pressure on Greece
Escalating conflicts across the Middle East and beyond threaten to trigger new migration waves toward Europe, placing Greece once again at the frontline of a potential humanitarian and geopolitical crisis
China’s Global Rest of World strategy: the table has moved
China’s Global Rest of World strategy abandons American volatility, forging a Sinocentric trade corridor through Riyadh, London, and Africa. This structural realignment creates an economic ecosystem increasingly insulated from Washington’s coercive leverage