Geopolitics
National security, export controls and state actors.
Reclaiming the Sovereign Mind: Why Friction and Mental Effort Are Essential to Human Flourishing Under AI
An analysis of hybrid sovereignty and cognitive dependency, detailing the threat to personal agency as artificial assets shape individual decision-making, and outlining strategies to rebuild critical thinking.
When Government Works, Americans Act on Climate
Belief in governmental capacity to solve climate change is a stronger predictor of public engagement than political ideology, with visible policy wins driving cross-partisan action.
Taiwan Expands Drone Production via U.S.-Partnerships to Enhance Defense
Taiwan is scaling up its domestic drone manufacturing capabilities through strategic partnerships with US-based companies, including Ubiqconn Technology's collaboration with AeroVironment, to bolster its defense infrastructure against increased regional threats.
The $200M Counter-Drone: How 9 Mothers Rewrote the Rules of Defense Tech
How a tiny Austin startup built the first affordable, autonomous counter-drone system—and became the most valuable YC Spring 2026 company overnight.
Beyond the Ban: Asian Labs Build Mythos-Class AI as U.S. Export Controls Tighten
With the Trump administration blocking global access to Anthropic's Mythos and Fable 5, startups in Tokyo and Beijing are launching frontier models that aim to match U.S. capabilities — raising questions about whether this is a temporary hedge or the start of a permanent AI decoupling.
Mythos 5: How the U.S. Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI Defense
The U.S. reversed its ban on Mythos 5—not because it’s safe, but because it’s the only tool that can defend against the threats it was designed to counter.
From Shoes to Servers: Nadia Carlsten's Gamble on Sovereign AI
Nadia Carlsten left AWS and DCAI to run Smartbird — the AI infrastructure company that used to sell shoes. Here's what she's actually building, and why it might matter more than the neocloud hype cycle.
France's Sovereign Messenger Tchap Compromised After Account Takeover
DINUM confirmed that France's government-built Tchap messaging platform was breached on June 7, 2026 after ANSSI detected a threat actor hijacking a legitimate user account via social engineering. The attacker, calling itself 'Misère,' claims to have scraped 650,000 messages and 13.5GB of files across 73,000 accounts on the Matrix-based platform that serves over 300,000 monthly users in the French public sector.
Mach Industries Just Broke Defense. Here’s How.
How a 22-year-old founder turned a $300M funding round into a six-vehicle defense revolution — and why legacy primes can't catch up.
Shifting Geopolitical Currents: Trump at the 2019 G7 and the Reorientation of U.S. Diplomatic Focus
An analysis of President Donald Trump's diplomatic manoeuvres during the 2019 G7 summit in France, evaluating his pursuit of a deal with Iran and the subsequent implications for shifting U.S. foreign policy toward other global priorities like Ukraine.
Bifurcated Breakthroughs: Why Kai-Fu Lee Sees the U.S. and China Dominating Separate Sides of the AI Value Chain
An analytical breakdown of Kai-Fu Lee’s remarks at the WSJ Leadership Institute and his broader views on the AI race, examining how the U.S. controls foundational research while China leads in commercial execution, low-cost APIs, and rapid deployment.
Lethal Automations: A Controversial Battlefield Trial of Fully Autonomous Drones in Ukraine Marks a New Era of AI Warfare
A reported battlefield trial in Ukraine involving fully autonomous drones targeting Russian troops without a human in the loop raises critical ethical and policy questions, even as AI integration remains mostly partial and focused on navigation and target recognition.