Format
- Opening thesis — one sentence on what the week really was about.
- Politics this week — 5 to 9 tight notes, usually led by a country, state, institution, or corridor rather than a padded region.
- Business this week — optional, only when markets, trade, or energy aftershocks genuinely need a separate shelf.
- Watchpoint — one closing pressure line worth carrying into the next week.
The order should follow the week itself. Padding is the death of judgment. If a country, market, or theatre has no real signal, it stays out.
Archive
Weekly Reflections X: The Screen, the Gate, the Washout
A tenth issue on governed circulation: Brazil's campaign screen, Freedom Edge in Northeast Asia, China's presale reset, Mexico's sanitary cattle gate, drought finance in Mongolia, and Nepal's washed-out Himalayan corridor.
Weekly Reflections IX: The Passage, the Barrage, the Filter
A ninth issue on managed openness: Hormuz route politics, Korea's drill retrenchment and missile barrage, Philippine readiness, Mexico's China filters, East Africa's flood-food corridor risk, and India's offshore energy turn.
Weekly Reflections VIII: The Tanker, the Filing, the Forecast
An eighth issue on administered corridors: Hormuz tanker attacks and corridor talks, East Asian deterrence theatre, East Africa's flood and food risk, Brazil's WTO filing, India's offshore energy turn, and a world economy split by unequal exposure.
Weekly Reflections VII: The Warning, the Flood, the Tariff
A seventh issue on administered exposure: Scarborough warnings, East African flood corridors, al Shabaab's Gulf links, Brazil's tariff and WTO fight, India's offshore push, and the global split between war drag and tech lift.
Weekly Reflections VI: The Passage, the Penalty, the Permit
A sixth issue on the conditional world: Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, Scarborough Shoal, U.S. tariff-sanctions, Brazil's reciprocity file, China's supply-chain pressure, Africa's security spread, and India's energy response.
Weekly Reflections V: The Committee, the Corridor, the Constraint
A fifth issue rebuilt as a real world briefing spanning Gaza, Hormuz, Denmark's harder EU presidency, Manila's China frontier, Kenya's cabinet-law fight, Colombia's hardline turn, India's tariff standoff, and China's permit state.
Weekly Reflections IV: The Bombardment, the Base Rate, the Bill
A fourth issue on the week's arriving invoices: Kyiv under a record night raid, Lagarde retiring the unconventional era in Sintra, the Senate's Fourth-of-July megabill, the Pentagon's blindsiding weapons pause, Hormuz as an administered corridor, and the India-Japan minerals pact that Beijing openly resented.
Weekly Reflections III: The Premium, the Programme, the Passage
A third issue on the new invoice for openness: Hormuz, NATO, Washington's tariff threats, Mexico's sanitary border, and Nigeria's gas pain.
Weekly Reflections II: The Room, the Flank, the Bargain
A second issue on the price of reassurance: Shangri-La’s strained strategic room, Romania’s exposed flank, Latin America’s harder bargains, and Hormuz as the corridor every ceasefire still serves.
Weekly Reflections I: The Strait, the Summit, the Border
A first full-week issue on the return of hard power in its oldest habitats: the Hormuz chokepoint, the Asian security summit, Europe’s exposed border, and the securitisation of the Americas.