Geopolitics and Security
International affairs, wars, militaries, intelligence, and diplomacy, including Israel's wars and external security.
#975: The Architecture of Deception: Inside Intelligence Fronts
Explore how intelligence agencies build real businesses, from luxury resorts to shipping firms, to hide high-stakes operations in plain sight.
#972: When a 'Hundred Thousand Welcomes' Expires
From the closure of Cork’s last synagogue to rising political hostility, we explore why Ireland’s Jewish community is facing an uncertain future.
#970: The Limits of the State: Can a Nation Survive Anarchy?
Explore the boundaries of power as we look at stateless Somalia, private cities in Honduras, and the radical mini-state of Liechtenstein.
#969: The Intelligence Marketplace: Beyond the Spy Superpowers
Forget James Bond. Discover how countries like Ireland and Jordan navigate the high-stakes world of global intelligence and secret diplomacy.
#968: Breaking the Air Gap: The Truth About Industrial Cyber War
Beyond the "hacker in a hoodie" myth, we explore how state actors breach air-gapped systems to sabotage critical physical infrastructure.
#967: Tehran Access: The High-Stakes Tradecraft of Journalism
CNN is back in Tehran. Explore the high-stakes tradecraft and digital security journalists use to survive and report from inside a hostile state.
#966: The Silence of Damascus: Eli Cohen and the Physics of Spycraft
Was Eli Cohen’s capture a failure of tradecraft or a mathematical certainty? Explore the physics of signals and Soviet radio tracking.
#964: Iran's Ballistic Arsenal: A Strategic A-Z Audit
A clinical audit of the ballistic inventory facing Israel, exploring fuel types, re-entry speeds, and the shift to solid-fuel technology.
#963: The Truth Behind Iran’s Digital Iron Curtain
How do we measure public opinion in a state where dissent is a crime? Explore the data behind Iran’s hidden social and political reality.
#962: The Enemy That Keeps the Regime Alive
Explore the ideological and strategic roots behind the Iranian regime's persistent hostility toward Israel and the IRGC's "Axis of Resistance."
#961: When Colonial Maps Create Living Borders
Discover the strange reality of the northern border, where a single village was split in two and a mountain strip became a legal ghost.
#959: The Infinite Content Problem: AI’s War on Truth
Explore how AI is scaling disinformation to an industrial level and what the "liar's dividend" means for the future of shared reality.
#957: The Shadow Mechanics of Modern Regime Change
Explore the hidden tradecraft of subversion and why external attempts to topple entrenched regimes like the IRGC often lead to disaster.
#956: The Netflix Paradox: Presidential Downtime as a National Security Operation
Can the leader of the free world ever truly binge-watch Netflix? Explore the high-stakes tech and human cost of the "always-on" presidency.
#955: The CEO of Conflict: Inside the World of CENTCOM
Forget the "Red Phone" myths. Discover how a 4-star Admiral manages 50,000 troops and 1,700 targets in the middle of a global conflict.
#954: The Polite Fiction: Lebanon’s State-Militia Symbiosis
Is Lebanon a hostage or a willing partner? Explore the "polite fiction" of sovereignty and the blurred lines between the state and Hezbollah.
#953: Shadow Signals: The Mystery of Number Station V-32
Explore the haunting world of number stations and the mysterious new V-32 signal emerging from the conflict in Iran.
#952: Can Amateur Sleuths Outsmart the CIA?
Explore how OSINT evolved from a niche hobby into a billion-dollar industry that rivals state intelligence agencies in the modern age.
#951: The Kurdish Wild Card: A Nation Between Empires
With 40 million people and no state, the Kurds remain the Middle East's ultimate wild card. Will 2026 be the year their borders finally change?
#950: The LinkedIn-ification of Modern Espionage
From CIA resumes to LinkedIn branding, explore how modern intelligence agencies are fighting Big Tech for the world’s top digital talent.