Geopolitical Horizons Geopolitical Horizons

How do we make sense of the world? There is so much going on at any given time, what are the building blocks of geopolitics and how do we make sense of them. In this series of podcasts, we begin with looking at the how to do this. 

Germany today is the industrial powerhouse of Europe, sitting at the centre of the continent. But its had difficult relations with many of its neighbours leading to devastating wars. In this podcast our Europe analyst Massihollah Rohparwar, who is based in Hamburg outlines the geopolitics of Germany.

The 24th February marks the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict looks very far from ending anytime soon and a Russian victory that everyone was expecting didn't come to pass. There hasn't been a nuclear war yet or WW3 but all the major powers are involved in different ways. In this podcast we asses where the war stands after one year

Nigeria goes to the polls on the 25th February 2023 to elect the President, Vice President, Senate and House representatives. The West African nation has for long been seen as a developing nation which led Goldman Sachs to label the African nation as one of the MINT nations in 2014 who along with Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey have the potential in the long term to move up the economic ladder and become developed nations due to their latent potential. 

Pakistan faces a perfect storm as numerous crises have all converged at the same time. From spiralling inflation to the national debt, Pakistan is fast approaching a national meltdown. Pakistan's rulers are busy trying to show the IMF they are worthy of a bailout as her usual lenders in the Gulf as well as China have had enough bailing out the South Asian nation. Is Pakistan about to become a failed state?

Recently there was a standoff on the Kosovo-Serbia border. This was after Kosovo ordered drivers to surrender their Serbian-issued licence plates and replace them with Kosovo plates. Serbs living in northern Kosovo started erecting barricades and Kosovo residents confronted them. A traffic jam ensued, and so did a small shootout. The shooting has now died down but the threats have continued. A shootout over licence plates may seem excessive, but this is the Balkans, the region where a shootout led to WW1 and where today many ethnicities live in relatively small areas where the political borders don’t match the ethnic borders.

Adnan Khan sits down with Petret Salmani who is from the Balkans to make sense of the tensions as well as the broader region