In The Blind Spot: Dario’s takeover bonus
SNEAK PEEK — Why Georgia’s election controversy is even more interesting and geopolitically important than appreciated. — How little Martinique may be part of a big French puzzle that some say shouldn’t be solved. — Flooding in Valencia leads to more accusations of weather manipulation on social media and why traditional media needs to […]
Spotlight on Israel’s permanent state of exception
By Dario Garcia Giner To many in the West, Israel’s fierce military posture clashes jarringly with its image as a beacon of democracy and progress in the Middle East. How can a society known for its rule of law, cutting-edge innovation, and bustling nightlife in Tel Aviv also maintain a harsh grip over millions of […]
Spotlight on ‘Dam Diplomacy’
Damned dams: Why Egypt’s alliance with Somalia is underpinned by dam diplomacy By Dario Garcia Giner KEY POINTS: — Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile has escalated tensions with Egypt, which fears the dam could threaten its crucial water supply, leading to military alliances and proxy conflict in […]
Spotlight on the 3D industrial revolution that may already be here
By Dario Garcia Giner The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting is (or, was, until Charlie Munger’s death in late 2023) an event so widely reported that it practically transcends the financial sector. Though less anticipated than an Nvidia earnings release and delivered without any of the razzle-dazzle one experiences at an Apple launch event, for those […]
Germany never slept, but it *is* losing (again)
Whenever Izabella is off, Dario takes the chance to effectuate a coup of the Blind Spot newsletter. This week’s Blind Spot newsletter has thus been shunted aside in favour of Dario’s take on economist Noah Smith’s piece: “Europe’s fate is in Germany’s hands now”. Noah Smith’s call to action for Germany to step up, get […]
Spotlight on the Libyan conflict: explaining the unexplainable
After 13 years of fighting, the Western hemisphere’s longest-running active conflict remains its most bizarre standoff. And yet, almost everything makes perfect sense. French and American interests supported the rise of a former CIA-asset-turned-warlord, Khalifa Haftar, who battled on the Libyan streets alongside Wagner militias and Emirati Mirage jets against a UN-recognised government backed by […]
Spotlight: What the great neo-medievalisation will look like
In the conduct of states, as in the conduct of individuals, appearances constantly shift while the fundamentals always remain unchanged. One of our recurring Blind Spot themes has been the neo-medievalisation of the world. Originally associated with Hedley Bull since the late 70s, the trend described the globalised world as analogous to high-medieval Europe. In […]
Africa’s Horn’s in a (t)horny spot.
In the latest example of complex politics of the Horn of Africa spilling over into Western lands, a shocking series of violent riots erupted in The Hague, Netherlands, as opposing Eritrean factions fought running battles on the Dutch streets, injuring six police officers and leading to the arrest of 13 suspects. They’re not the first. […]
In the Blind Spot (48 hours at the Paris Air Show edition)
Dear Subscribers, We come into Saturday evening with an apparent would-be coup being unwound in Russia, but also in the grips of two other high intensity viral stories: news of a cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and the sad news that the passengers on the Titan submarine could not be saved. The […]
The biggest aerial safety blind spot facing our skies may be UAP
The Blind Spot’s Dario Garcia-Giner probes just how big a deal UAPs are for the safety of our skies and what authorities across the world are doing to track the phenomena. An exhaustive months-long investigation reveals the risk is on the way to being treated more seriously by civil and military aviation institutions — a robust about-turn after decades of pretending it didn’t exist.
