Philippa Kaur

In a global competition between governing philosophies, democracies seem to have lost both the narrative and the reflexes to fight. Two decades of increasingly urgent warnings from political scientists should have triggered a broad strategic reckoning; instead, the erosion of democracy is often treated as a domestic pathology rather than a global struggle reshaping the… Continue reading Losing the Legitimacy War
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The Financial Times recently published a comment from an anonymous major oil company executive vis-à-vis investment in Venezuela, “No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country…” Recently, I endured a couple of weeks of people outside the United States explaining to me,… Continue reading Trump’s Random Walks: Unpredictable Politics and Chaotic Foreign Policy
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Over the past decade, street protests in Iran have erupted repeatedly. At times, economic crises have served as the main trigger; at other moments, political repression or regional tensions have pushed people into the streets. Yet despite the changing causes, the overall pattern has remained strikingly consistent: demonstrations that spread rapidly, a surge of nationwide… Continue reading Unextinguished Anger: Why Iran’s Streets Keep Rising
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The coup that never was When the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from other feudal princes. — Sun Zi, 6th century BCE The arrest in late January of General Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Central Military Commission, spawned rumors of a coup d’état, with fringe Western media sources… Continue reading Xi Jinping’s China: The Coup That Never Was
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Between December 2025 and January 2026, Bangladesh saw a renewed spate of violence against religious minorities, especially members of the Hindu community, according to police reports and documentation by human rights groups including Amnesty International and the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC). A series of killings was reported in the aftermath of the… Continue reading Bangladesh Heads to the Polls as Minorities Face an Uncertain Future
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Last month at Davos, Canada’s Prime Minister (PM) Mark Carney gave a remarkable speech: brave, honest and formally revealing the end of an international rules-based order. But in addition to exposing reality, it was a call-out to “middle powers” to stand up and stand united against the growing demands of aggressive superpowers. The concept of… Continue reading Walking the Middle Way, Together
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Last summer, I lived in Athens, volunteering with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides food to refugees and people experiencing homelessness. I stayed in Exarcheia, a neighborhood that some of my friends warned me about in advance. They described it as dangerous, overrun by anarchists, radicals, even criminals. What I found instead was warmth. The… Continue reading Iran, Gaza and the Politics of Conditional Solidarity Within Western Activist Circles
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