Central Asia
The Heart of the World-Island
Five landlocked post-Soviet states sit atop vast energy reserves where Russian, Chinese, and Western influence collide over Mackinder's Heartland.
Regions
Strategic regions where competing great power interests create instability, from the Arctic to the South China Sea.
19 regions
All Regions
Central Europe
The Lands In Between: From Visegrád Solidarity to Strategic Divergence
Central Europe — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary — occupies the geopolitical heart of the continent, where post-Communist transformation, NATO integration, and the shock of Russia's Ukraine invasion have exposed deep fault lines between Western-aligned Poland and Orbán's Hungary.
Eastern Europe
The Contested Frontier
Russia's invasion of Ukraine shattered the post-Cold War peace. NATO's eastern flank, Baltic to Black Sea, is now great power rivalry's front line.
Latin America
The Contested Backyard
China's economic surge into Washington's backyard is reshaping alliances and political alignments across 33 nations from Mexico to Patagonia.
North Africa
The Maghreb Between the Mediterranean and the Sahara
North Africa — Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco — forms the Mediterranean's southern shore, serving as a migration gateway, energy supplier, and contested theatre for European, Gulf, and great-power influence in the post-Arab Spring era.
South Asia
The Nuclear Tinderbox
Two nuclear-armed rivals split by partition, a rising India confronting China, and 2 billion people where a border clash could turn atomic.
South China Sea
The Most Contested Waters on Earth
$5 trillion in yearly trade crosses waters Beijing claims almost entirely, where artificial islands and naval standoffs are rewriting rules of sea power.
Southeast Asia
The Contested Crossroads
Home to 680 million people and the Strait of Malacca, this region is where Chinese expansion and American alliances will shape the Indo-Pacific order.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The Continent of Competition
A population doubling by 2050, minerals vital to the energy transition, and a China-vs-West scramble for influence are driving Africa's geopolitical rise.
The Arctic
The Melting Frontier
Melting ice is unlocking shipping routes, energy reserves, and military positions, turning the frozen North into a new great power battleground.
The Balkans
Europe's Powder Keg
The peninsula that sparked World War I still simmers with ethnic rivalries, Russian interference, and sovereignty disputes at Europe's most volatile edge.
The Caucasus
The Crossroads of Empires
Frozen conflicts, rival pipelines, and three empires colliding between the Black and Caspian Seas make this mountain corridor one of Eurasia's flashpoints.
The Horn of Africa
Fragile States, Contested Straits, and the World's Busiest Military Real Estate
The Horn of Africa — Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea — controls the western approaches to the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, making it one of the world's most strategically contested regions despite being among its most impoverished.
The Indian Ocean
The Strategic Sea of the Twenty-First Century
Carrying 80% of global seaborne oil and linking three continents, the Indian Ocean is where US-China-India rivalry will reshape the world order.
The Middle East
The Strategic Crossroads
Three continents meet, one-fifth of global oil flows, and sectarian and proxy wars intersect in a region that has defied every attempt to impose order.
The Nordic-Baltic Region
From Neutrality to NATO's Northern Shield
Finland's 2023 and Sweden's 2024 NATO accession transformed the Nordic-Baltic region from a patchwork of neutral and alliance states into a unified security space, adding 1,340 kilometres of Finnish-Russian border to NATO's defensive perimeter and reshaping the strategic geography of northern Europe.
The Pacific Islands
The Strategic Ocean
Tiny nations across an ocean larger than Africa now anchor US-China rivalry, with both superpowers competing for basing rights and diplomatic loyalty.
The Persian Gulf
Energy, Empire, and the World's Most Contested Waterway
The Persian Gulf sits at the intersection of global energy supply and great-power rivalry, with nearly half the world's proven oil reserves concentrated along its shores and the Strait of Hormuz controlling the flow of a fifth of global oil trade.
The Sahel
Jihadist Expansion, Coup Contagion, and the Collapse of the French Order
The Sahel — the semi-arid belt stretching from Senegal to Sudan — has become the world's fastest-growing jihadist theatre, with a cascade of military coups expelling French forces and welcoming Russian mercenaries in a dramatic realignment of African security politics.