Fair Observer

Mediation between great powers is not something a country stumbles into. It requires a specific combination of access, credibility and restraint that is delicate and takes years to build. Pakistan built that combination without anyone in the international community noticing until the moment it mattered. The US–Iran war disrupted roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supplies and killed more than 2,000 people in Iran within five weeks.

Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and FOI Senior Partner Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer who now advises companies, governments and organizations on geopolitical risk, examine the broader strategic implications of the US/Israel–Iran conflict. Its significance extends well beyond the immediate military and diplomatic outcomes, revealing a changing balance of power in the Middle East and a transformation in the character of modern warfare.

Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and FOI Senior Partner Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer who now advises companies, governments and organizations on geopolitical risk, recap the most important developments of the month. Elon Musk’s much-hyped company SpaceX’s massive initial public offering (IPO) dominated the news for days. This IPO is not a marker of just success in business but captures how the market itself is eroding dramatically. Regulators rewrote rules to make exceptions for SpaceX.

On a recent episode of his podcast, All-In, David Sacks reached for Plato. The subject was whether anyone should be allowed to regulate artificial intelligence. Sacks was against regulation, and to explain why he summoned the oldest question in political philosophy: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. Who will guard the guardians? Who watches the watchman, restrains the restrainer, checks the power we create to check everything else? It is a serious question.

Pakistan’s recent emergence as a mediator in the West Asia crisis has surprised many observers. A state often portrayed as economically fragile, politically unstable and strategically overextended has suddenly placed itself near the center of diplomacy between Washington and Tehran. Pakistani officials have gone so far as to suggest that Islamabad could host direct talks.

Most of us in the Western world agree with Winston Churchill’s famous that “democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Contrary to what many people think who cite this as an argument to accept uncritically the imperfection of our current system, this actually encourages us to imagine the possibility of inventing a form of government that may be more effective than our current version of democracy.

For many Americans, the 250th anniversary of the US was a time for celebration, but as with all milestones, it could and should also be an opportunity for reflection. Independence Day is the anniversary of the public announcement of the Declaration of Independence.

Martin Plaut, a journalist, academic and author, explains the wave of xenophobic violence unfolding across South Africa. As groups demand that undocumented migrants leave the country, he examines the economic pressures driving the unrest, the government’s response and the broader political forces he believes may be shaping the crisis.

While the West declines, the East emerges. Power, indeed, seems to be shifting to the East and very particularly to China. A very important question we must ask ourselves as we examine this shift is how long the West has been on top. Was it only during the last 200 years, when Pax Britannica and Pax Americana ruled the world? Or, conversely, was it for the last five centuries, when scientific progress and global expansion were clearly led by the West?

India made a giant leap in its nuclear energy program as its Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) attained first criticality on April 6. The indigenously developed nuclear reactor can generate 500 megawatts of electricity for commercial use. This milestone marks India’s entry into the second stage of its three-stage nuclear power program, originally designed in the 1950s.