Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

Every day until Christmas, Philip and Andrew open a window, revealing an object that speaks to the geopolitical year that was.

The Special Relationship: from Britain defaulting on its loans in the 1930s, to Suez, to Falklands, to the War on Terror, to Trump patronising Starmer at the recent Israel-Gaza peace summit, the precise specialness of this relationship has long been in dispute - whether the political classes acknowledge it or not. There was of course Lend-Lease and the small matter of two World Wars, but Britain’s post-war status, as junior partner in the American Empire has meant it has profited, but as the world pivots, it is now exposed.

Philip Pilkington has been watching the recent wire-tap scandal with Steve Witkoff and Russian official Yuri Ushakov with interest. There is only one country with the capabilities to pull off that kind of intelligence breach, he suggests. And as a result of this and much else, that country may soon find itself off the special list.

So what then? What is Britain’s destiny if it can’t eat at America’s table? And how will America re-make itself in a world where it treats its historic allies so lightly? And what will that mean in turn for the wider Western alliance?

This week, our duo go in search of the long story of the Special Relationship - but only for Patrons. Pay us $5 $5 or €5 a month by searching Patreon.com for Multipolarity, and you too can understand why the good ship Anglo is going down down down to Davey Jones’ Locker.

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The common story of modern China’s development is that it has two ages: Mao, and reform.

The truth is there are at least six internally coherent economic eras within the country’s journey from basket case to superpower. Each with their own rules and obsessions.

That’s certainly the view of Philip Pilkington, who has been crunching the deep data on the Chinese economy, in a new paper for Eurasia Magazine.

This week, in an hour long special, Andrew Collingwood quizzes him on the particularities of these periods: from the black-and-white-cats of Deng, to the red-in-tooth-and-claw market mercantilism of Hu Jintao, up to Xi’s property sinking funds and robot army.

As Philip argues, most US Republicans still imagine that the central danger of China is that it trades unfairly - in truth, the country has moved on from that point on the global value chain.

Remember you can get special paywalled premium episodes of Multipolarity every month on Patreon: https://patreon.com/multipolarity or by becoming a member on our YouTube Channel (just click Join).

Would every company be affected if the AI bubble were to burst? That’s what Sundar Pichai, the head of Google's parent firm Alphabet reckons.

The facts are startling, with the crypto market shedding more than $1tn in six weeks amid fears that the bubble may just go pop. With bitcoin price at its lowest level since April and the FTSE 100 falling, the guys at the top still say they absolutely do NOT think there’ll be a burst. That normally goes well right?

In UK News, Philip has started somewhat of an X meltdown. He reported that British abortion rates as a % of pregnancies are exploding in spite of recent innovations in contraception. Warning that this a major signal that something is deeply wrong in the economy. Is Britain heading to an almighty demographic crash-out, leading to an immigration boom?

Meanwhile in Mexico, after thousands of demonstrators marched in the capital on Saturday to protest against violent crime President Sheinbaum has again dismissed Trump’s threat of sending in US troops. Sheinbaum said the marches, which also took place in other cities, had been funded by right-wing politicians who oppose her government. 

Could the US be trying to encourage a colour revolution? While Trump continues to keep eyes on his armada in the southern Caribbean, close to Venezuela, who’s to say? And would it even work?

Still hungry for more?

Philip sat down to converse with Jacques Sapir, a leading expert on the Russian economy, and part of the Institute of Economic War in Paris, to chat all things Russia, for the Danube Institute. Thoroughly recommended, you can watch here: https://youtu.be/5raqAVEOWXU

Remember you can get special paywalled premium episodes of Multipolarity every month on Patreon: https://patreon.com/multipolarity or by becoming a member on our YouTube Channel (just click Join).

Multipolarity Dialogues is a series of interviews that scan the geopolitical horizon. We talk to some of the sharpest analysts, thinkers, and experts about how they see the world beyond the visible edge of the geopolitical now.

The Middle East is as violent and fractious as ever. Now the questions that arise from that violence appear more important than ever. Israel seems to want to end the chaos in a way that provides it with military dominance over the region and some semblance of peace. 

But can it achieve this or even survive for much longer? Given the scale of enmity it faces in the region and the recent shifts in US domestic politics. 

What of Egypt, which has been since the Second World War, the dominant military power within the region? 

And are we seeing the reemergence of Turkey to its traditional place as regional hegemon?

Well, to answer these questions we have Firas Modad joining us.

Firas is a Druze Lebanese convert to Catholicism, who now lives and works in the UK. As founder and principle of Modad Geopolitics, a consultancy which provides commercially relevant analysis of the effect of geopolitical change on specific regions and industry sectors. 

Firas for some years now, has been a mainstay geopolitical commentator on the podcast circuit and indeed hosts his own podcast, Realpolitik, within the burgeoning Lotus Eaters ecosystem.