Mackinder Forum

Weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: October 31, 2026 - November 6, 2026 hubs.ly/Q04DG0Fv0

TODAY at 12pm ET: Taking Stock II with Michael Kimmage 🌍 Join the Mackinder Forum this afternoon for the second session of our Taking Stock series: "The War in Ukraine and the Logic of Escalation." Professor Kimmage will explore how the conflict has evolved, what shapes the choices of the parties involved, and what it all means for European security and the wider international order. 🎙️ About our speaker Michael Kimmage is director of the Kennan Institute in Washington, DC, and professor of history at the Catholic University of America. From 2014 to 2016 he held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff. His most recent book is Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability (Oxford University Press, 2024). 🗓️ Today, Wednesday, November 4 ⏰ 12:00pm - 1:45pm ET: Talk and Q&A, hosted by Dr. Leonard Hochberg 💻 Virtual, via Zoom There's still time to register: hubs.ly/Q04D8nMZ0 We hope to see you there! #MackinderForum #Geopolitics #Ukraine #Russia #EuropeanSecurity #InternationalRelations

Weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: October 24, 2026 - October 30, 2026 hubs.ly/Q04CY5Hn0

📚 Can 50 maxims add up to a theory of strategy? On the Mackinder Forum, Dr. Kelly C. Jordan reviews The Art of Strategy: 50 Maxims for War, Politics, Business and Everyday Life by Athanasios Platias and Constantinos Koliopoulos (Hurst, 2026). His take: individually, some of the maxims sound obvious. Together, they form a real framework for thinking strategically. The book doesn’t tell you what to do. It helps you ask the right questions, and those questions endure even as the answers change. A great read for anyone in geopolitical risk, national security or strategic planning. 👉 hubs.ly/Q04CHZyb0 #Strategy #Geopolitics #StrategicThinking #BookReview #MackinderForum #S4GEO

Taking Stock II: “The War in Ukraine and the Logic of Escalation” 📅 Wednesday, November 4, 2026 🕛 12:00pm US Eastern, on Zoom Join the Mackinder Forum for the second seminar in our Taking Stock series with Michael Kimmage, Director of the Kennan Institute and Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. He’ll look at how the war in Ukraine has evolved, what drives each side’s choices, and what the conflict means for European security and the wider international order. Kimmage covered Russia and Ukraine on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff from 2014 to 2016. His most recent book is Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability (Oxford University Press, 2024). The event is free and open to all. Register here: 👉 hubs.ly/Q04CwHgL0 #Geopolitics #Ukraine #Russia #NationalSecurity #EuropeanSecurity #MackinderForum

Frequent Mackinder Forum speaker Athanasios Platias marks the 70th anniversary of the Suez Crisis in Modern Diplomacy. His point is that Britain wasn’t stopped by Egypt or Moscow. It was stopped by Washington. A sharp, timely read 👇 hubs.ly/Q04CkjM-0 #Geopolitics #GeopoliticalRisk #Suez #MackinderForum

Production or payouts? Congress is weighing limits on defense contractor buybacks and dividends. A January executive order told the Pentagon to curb buybacks, dividends, and executive pay at underperforming contractors. A bipartisan push to make that law, Section 815 of the Senate NDAA, is now stalled until after the midterms. In the latest Hill Dispatch, Eric Zalcman covers: 🔹 The $100B the top five primes have spent on payouts since 2020 🔹 The Warren–Hawley–Lee coalition behind the provision 🔹 The fight between the U.S. Chamber and major unions over its fate Read more 👇 hubs.ly/Q04Ckb7F0 #DefensePolicy #NDAA #GeopoliticalRisk #NationalSecurity

Weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: October 2, 2026 - October 9, 2026 hubs.ly/Q04zQJVx0

Weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: September 26 - October 2, 2026 hubs.ly/Q04z5gJF0

Can the United States and China cooperate on AI? Sarah Kreps argues that AI is not like nuclear weapons, and traditional arms-control models don’t fit. Read her new piece in ThinkChina ahead of her Oct. 14 Mackinder Forum lecture, examining the physical foundations of AI power, from critical minerals and semiconductors to energy and data centers, and the new dependencies and chokepoints they create. Register here: hubs.ly/Q04ytPJj0

Who controls the seas helps determine how the world does business. After 1763, Britain used its maritime dominance to shape global trade, freedom of navigation and the rules of international commerce. The system it built still influences the world today. You can still register for Wednesday's 12:00 pm Eastern US Time lecture, "The Anglosphere (I): Geopolitical Origins and Development," with Jim Hardy and Ben Price. hubs.ly/Q04yt8yz0

Join us Wednesday September 30 at noon Eastern time for a special lecture on the rise of British maritime supremacy. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the British navy became the world’s dominant naval power, enforcing freedom of navigation, suppressing piracy and the slave trade, and infusing British law and culture into international commerce.  Register here for "The Anglosphere (I): Geopolitical Origins and Development" presented by Jim Hardy and Ben Price  hubs.ly/Q04ykRWS0

Weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: September 19 - September 25, 2026 hubs.ly/Q04ynfr60

The Mackinder Forum is pleased to announce the winners of its competition recognizing Cambridge University students for excellence in geopolitical risk analysis. 🏆 Winner: Tom Makins, BA, Human, Social, and Political Sciences "Friends with Bombs: How America’s Allies Are Becoming the Real Proliferation Risk" Runner-Up: Kylie Hammack, MPhil, Human, Social, and Political Sciences "Local Corruption and Strategic Risk: The Geography of Geopolitical Instability" Highly Commended: Harry Johnson, MPhil, Global Risk and Resilience "The UK is Unprepared for the Next Global Systemic Crisis" Congratulations to Tom, Kylie and Harry for their outstanding work. Read about their work here: hubs.ly/Q04yg5wn0 #Geopolitics #GeopoliticalRisk #CambridgeUniversity #InternationalRelations

Mackinder Forum Prize announced: The competition recognizes Cambridge University students for excellence in geopolitical risk analysis. Winner: Tom Makins (BA, Human, Social, and Political Sciences) for "Friends with Bombs: How America’s Allies Are Becoming the Real Proliferation Risk"

The U.S. and China may lower some tariffs. But that doesn’t mean their economic competition is ending. With President Trump and President Xi meeting, the latest Mackinder Forum bulletin examines what may change, and what probably won’t. Read more in our weekly Geopolitical News Bulletin: hubs.ly/Q04y9RdW0