The United States, China and Russia are the three main powers of the current era that are vying for dominance on the global stage, all with their own sets of imperatives and challenges. In this month’s ClubGPF live discussion, GPF Chairman George Friedman examines the three nations and the main issues they currently face: culture wars and political division in the US, a declining economy in China, and a frozen war in Russia. In our Q&A session, Club members asked about George’s new book on geopolitics and the moon, the role of Southeast Asian countries in larger state actors, and how Russia could still be a great power as it continues pressing on with its war with Ukraine.
The evolution of both Palestine and modern-day Israel goes back centuries, its roots in the Ottoman Empire, to its evolutions during WWI and WWI to the emergence of modern Zionism and Arab nationalism. In this week's Club discussion, GPF Chairman George Friedman examines this complex history including his own personal history, plus Israel's struggles with strategic depth, what the future holds for Palestinians and Israelis.
GPF contributor Kamran Bokhari recently wrote that massive geopolitical change has come to the Middle East in the form of the attack on Gaza, a weakening of Iran, paralyzing of Hezbollah, the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria and much more. Considering all these developments and the way in which Israel's actions are driving events in the region, we've brought Dr. Bokhari back to the podcast with host Christian Smith to discuss Israel's wider strategy and what he predicts for the future.
Our theme for this year's Annual Forecast was A World Without an Anchor. As George Friedman explained earlier this year, historically, nations did not conduct themselves without aligning with or getting their bearings in relation to a power system that drove the world, an anchor. Now that we are more than halfway through 2025, this week's ClubGPF discussion is a chance to take stock of where nations are lining up, and where things will go from here.
In our Q&A Session, Club members asked about the geopolitical strategy and Trump's intentions for Greenland, how much the US needs Canada to help it control the Arctic, and Ukraine's interest in joining the EU.
The United States military has gone through many evolutions, from technological to structural, over the decades. Maintaining dominance in the Atlantic theatre has long remained a top strategic imperative. For this week's live discussion, George Friedman is joined by Richard Levine, someone who has been directly involved in creating defense policy at the National Security Council and at the Department of Defense, for a discussion on maritime superiority.
Russia has been one of the most involved foreign powers in the Middle East over the past 15 years. But with the war in Ukraine, its attention has been turned elsewhere. Meanwhile, many in the West hoped that the massive sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 would be enough to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. And as rumors of an impending Russian recession loom, the Kremlin may be starting to feel the pressure.
The recent escalation between Israel and Iran was not unexpected. As George Friedman recently wrote, there was never a possibility that Tehran could avoid detection or that the Israelis or the Americans would not destroy the nuclear facilities before they went operational. In this week's live discussion, George is joined by GPF contributors and Middle East experts Hilal Khashan and Kamran Bokhari to examine the situation and all its complexities within the region and beyond.
In simpler times, the decision of the Kurdistan Workers Party to lay down its arms and disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkey would have dominated global headlines. In reality, though, the agreement between the PKK and Ankara became just another development in an already rapidly changing picture for Middle East and global geopolitics. On this episode, GPF contributing analyst Kamran Bokhari joins Christian Smith to understand how this all fits together and what it could mean for Turkey in the more than 30 million Kurds in the Middle East.
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 this week's live discussion to focus on the Middle East, and to break down the US imperatives in the region, following Donald Trump's historic visit.
Just a few months ago, Canada’s conservative party appeared a dead cert to win the country’s general election. But since the resignation of Justin Trudeau and the souring of relations between the US and its northern neighbor, the polls have quite literally flipped. Meanwhile, tariffs, border issues and suggestions of US troops in Mexico are creating concerns to America’s south. Like much of the world, North American geopolitics looks very different to six months ago. On this episode of the podcast, we continue our series on Trump’s second term in office as we look at the geopolitics of North America with GPF’s director of analysis, Allison Fedirka.
