Diplo Blog
The screen and the State – When Netflix met geopolitics
16 October 2025
Of an evening, as the world settles, a quiet ritual is playing out. On sofas in Santiago, in flats in Florence, in condominiums in New York, a decision is made. It is a small, private act, this business of scrolling through a seemingly bottomless digital library of film and television. And yet, it is quite […]
What rhetoric, Chinese junks, and borders teach us about structure
15 October 2025
Why does form matter? Aldo Matteucci explores how shapes – of words, ships, and states – carry meaning. From rhetoric to Chinese junks to the modern border, structure tells its own story.
When did diplomacy start? Earlier than we think.
14 October 2025
We don’t know the exact moment diplomacy began, and we probably never will. But we can say, with high confidence, that its roots stretch far beyond palace courts and parchment treaties, back into the deep past of our species and even before it. Clues from our far cousins If you look to our closest relatives, […]
AI, smart cities, and the surveillance trade-off
14 October 2025
At a recent AI ethics conference in Doha, the conversation about smart cities followed a predictable pattern. Speakers talked about optimisation, efficiency, and seamless integration of AI into urban infrastructure. Yet when pressed for concrete examples of how these systems work in practice, the discussion remained abstract. This gap between vision and reality reveals something […]
Can cities tame big tech?
11 October 2025
Most of us picture an ambassador’s residence as a quiet, formal place, full of polished furniture and history. The conversations there are careful and complex, centred on treaties and statecraft. But a strange thing is happening in our time: a new kind of diplomat is emerging. You’re more likely to find this person in a […]
Breakthroughs in human-centric bioscience with AI
06 October 2025
In our recent article, ‘AI in practice: Real-world applications explained’, we explored the subtle yet far-reaching ways artificial intelligence is changing our world. Now, a stunning new breakthrough offers a dramatic illustration: scientists have harnessed generative AI to design synthetic proteins for genome editing, outperforming nature itself! This technical advance is a vivid case study […]
How globalisation changes the role of borders
06 October 2025
Borders once defined state autonomy and separated ‘friend’ from ‘foe’. Globalisation has made this model obsolete, requiring new forms of diplomacy.
X-Ray of the UN General Debate: Echo, Gloom, and Hope
02 October 2025
The United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell. This sobering quote from former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld echoed through the halls of the General Assembly this year, a stark reminder of the high stakes at play. As world leaders gathered, the prevailing […]
How TikTok is changing world politics
02 October 2025
The landmark $14 billion deal that shifts control of TikTok’s American operations to a U.S.-led consortium is the most potent evidence yet that the video-sharing app has evolved from a social media diversion into a significant front in international power politics. What was once dismissed as a repository for dance challenges has become an unavoidable […]
The illusion of free markets: Why rules are inescapable
01 October 2025
‘Free markets’ without rules aren’t free – they collapse, breed corruption, or hand out windfalls. Rules aren’t obstacles; they’re survival tools in complex societies.
Posts per page:
