“I am worried about a sneak-out scenario, where the Iranians continue to lick their wounds after this devastating war, but quietly continue their work. It’s a very mountainous country & there are a lot of underground facilities." Ankit Panda in The New Statesman: newstatesman.com/international-…

Happy to share this review of Joseph Torigian's remarkable new biography of Xi Zhongxun, which aside from the insights it offers into his famous son is also a fascinating study in the nature of power and those who wield it. (And no, I did not come up with the headline.)

Donald Trump appears, belatedly, to be reaching the conclusion that Vladimir Putin cannot be entirely trusted. newstatesman.com/world/europe/u…

48 hours after the US bombed Iran, Kim strolled through his new water park, shaking hands with the Russian ambassador. The North Korean guide to going nuclear in The New Statesman with Edward Howell, Anna Fifield, CSIS's Sydney Seiler & Fyodor Tertitskiy: tinyurl.com/4u53mvms

North Korea’s guide to going nuclear 🌎 Katie Stallard on how Kim Jong Un fortified his impoverished state. newstatesman.com/international-…

"If Trump and Putin do meet, without any meaningful concessions from the Russian leader in advance, then this will rightly be celebrated as a diplomatic victory in the Kremlin." Katie Stallard: What Putin wants from talks with Trump. newstatesman.com/world/europe/u…

Excellent to feature in this well-written The New Statesman piece on North Korea’s nuclear strategy, together with CSIS Korea Chair’s Sydney Seiler; Anna Fifield; and Fyodor Tertitskiy.

What Putin wants from talks with Donald Trump - and the danger of treating the talks themselves as a form of victory. In The New Statesman newstatesman.com/world/europe/u…

What to expect from Trump's half-baked summit in Alaska with Putin, and how Ukraine and Europe still have agency.

Just extraordinary to see Donald Trump applauding Vladimir Putin as he walked towards him on the red carpet in Alaska.

Sometimes there’s just a lot of smoke and not any fire to diplomacy. The last few days of “peace efforts” seem disjointed, haphazard, and very unlikely to amount to anything. But there’s smoke, so everyone is checking to see if there’s a fire, but there isn’t.

Trump reverses course on Ukraine, again 🌎 Katie Stallard: After meeting with Zelensky in Washington, Trump appears to welcome the prospect of US security guarantees for Kyiv. newstatesman.com/world/europe/u…

Security guarantees come in lots of shapes and sizes. But let’s be clear: there’s not going to be a US or European commitment to go to war with Russia if it reinvades Ukraine. I’m all for commitments to back a ceasefire. But this conversation is becoming divorced from reality.

The bad news for Ukraine is that Donald Trump appears to have only the most cursory grasp of the complexities of the existential war it is currently fighting, and a strong proclivity to adopt the views of the person he spoke to last. This is also the good news.

Given that Trump has, so far, shown no sign of following through on his threats, what is to stop Russia fighting on, while talking about talking & pushing for a peace deal next year, when Trump will likely be even more desperate for a win ahead of the mid-terms?

Lavrov wearing his CCCP sweatshirt to Alaska, and now Putin suggesting Zelensky is welcome to deliver himself to Moscow for talks. It's like they're competing for the greatest troll.

"It is testament to Trump’s faith in his personal charisma, and Putin’s apparently endless ability to beguile his US counterpart, that the former appears to have emerged from their encounters with his regard for the latter intact." Katie Stallard. newstatesman.com/international-…

Trump’s fantasy diplomacy in Russia and Ukraine, by Katie Stallard. His determination to see the best in Vladimir Putin is compounded by his ignorance about the war. newstatesman.com/international-…