A long-awaited meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin is slated for this Friday in Alaska. The summit, which comes after three and a half years of war in Ukraine, was announced last Friday after President Trump said that he was going to impose 50 percent tariffs on India. Excitement and trepidation in political circles across the US and Europe is making this feel like a big moment. But is it? Do we actually expect anything to come from this when the two sides appear so far apart?

Chairman and Founder of Geopolitical Futures George Friedman joins host Christian Smith to discuss the significance of and potential for the forthcoming meeting.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Venezuelan group the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. President Trump has long considered the cartels to be terrorists and has made their destruction a key policy of his administration. The cartels export of drugs to the U.S. is having a devastating impact on parts of the country.

In our new episode of Talking Geopolitics, join GPF Chairman George Friedman and host Christian Smith as they ask whether the cartels can they really be “destroyed,” and why this all has become a geopolitical issue?

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

Before he was elected for his second presidential term, Donald Trump promised to end the Ukraine war in one day. Last week, Trump gave Vladimir Putin a 50-day deadline to come to a peace deal on Ukraine before more sanctions will kick in on Russia and anyone who trades with Russia. In a recent live discussion with our Charter ClubGPF members, GPF Chairman George Friedman broke down what 'winning' actually means in the context of the war, Putin's threat of tactical nuclear weapons, and how Europe is preparing for the worst.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

For this episode of Talking Geopolitics, we turn our attention to China, where President Xi Jinping has been busy intensifying a crackdown on high-ranking officials. But although China's president may seem like a permanent feature on the global stage, a shaky Chinese economy and circling rivals means that his rule is far from secure. Geopolitical Futures analyst and China expert, Victoria Herczegh, has been writing about this issue for GPF subscribers on our website, and now she joins host Christian Smith to discuss what lies behind Xi's purges, what keeps him up at night, and what might happen when Xi leaves office.

On Saturday US time, 7 B2 Spirit Bombers dropped more than a dozen Bunker Buster Bombs on Iran as part of a coordinated strike on three nuclear sites inside the country. It came just over a week after Israel began its own strikes on Iran, which it said was approaching the point of no return in the development of a nuclear weapon. But it has left the world asking: is this a turning point, the start of a new conflict in the Middle East? Or the end of another one?

On the podcast, recorded Sunday, June 22nd, Geopolitical Futures chairman George Friedman joins host Christian Smith to discuss what’s behind America’s decision to attack, what next for Iran and the region, and whether the US may be dragged into another quagmire in the Middle East.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

Rivalry and alliances in the Middle East go back centuries and have shaped the geopolitics of this region in a major way. On this clip of a recent ClubGPF Podcast+ episode, GPF contributing analyst Kamran Bokhari joined Christian Smith to examine the complicated relationship between the various factions, mainly Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and how this all fits together to forecast the future of the Middle East region.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

The U.S. decision to recuse itself from European security has created something of a crisis on the continent. America wants European countries to pick up their own defense spending and focus on their own region, following Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

So what’s the feeling in Europe about the risks countries there face from Russia? How are they navigating those threats? And do Americans and Europeans see them in the same way? Talking Geopolitics host Christian Smith was joined by Geopolitical Futures Chairman and Founder George Friedman and Antonia Colibasanu, GPF's Senior Analyst from on the ground in Romania to discuss.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

It’s hard to find a region facing as much widespread turmoil as the Middle East, both historically and in the modern world. As Geopolitical Futures’ contributing analyst Hilal Khashan predicts, the Middle East will continue to oscillate between established and rising regional powers, with more turbulent times ahead. Hilal joined George Friedman for our recent ClubGPF live discussion to focus on the Middle East, and to break down the US imperatives in the region, following Donald Trump’s historic visit.

To learn more about ClubGPF and join our next session, visit http://ow.ly/qHIP50JUPW2.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House was always going to mean a new showdown between the world’s two largest economies. But, after spiraling tensions and escalating tariffs, last week the US and China announced that they had agreed to roll back recent measures for an initial 90 days. The agreement, which was hammered out over a weekend in Geneva, has relieved the markets. But the future of the relationship is far from settled – not least because the two sides are attempting to negotiate thorny issues concerning both their security and economic relationships side by side.

So what comes next? Host Christian Smith is joined by Geopolitical Futures' director of analysis Allison Fedirka, and China analyst Victoria Herczegh, to find out.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.

The US-Ukraine minerals deal is done but a Russia-Ukraine peace deal is seemingly out of reach. Now the US is looking to scale back its involvement in mediating an end to the conflict. So what's next for the war in Ukraine? In this episode, GPF Chairman George Friedman considers how the fighting might end, why Vladimir Putin might be running out of room, and why Eastern Europe is now the pivot point for European defense.

Visit http://www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion.