By: John Hulsman

Dr. John C. Hulsman is Senior Columnist at City AM, and Founder and Managing Partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a global political risk consulting firm. More of John’s work is available on his substack

All 156 Articles

The Neverendum: Why Britain won’t escape its existential crisis for decades

September 7, 2014

Above almost everything else, human nature craves clarity. Global risk analysts must fight against this entirely understandable need every day, if we are to fulfil conservative theorist Edmund Burke’s moral admonition to see the messy world as it is, rather than as we would like it to be. But this analytical flaw of wishful thinking [...]
Ukraine can’t win in this crisis – but Putin can be made to pay for his victory

September 3, 2014

IT IS a standard rule of thumb in global risk analysis that the side in a conflict calling for a ceasefire is the side that is losing. Until two weeks ago, President Putin of Russia – seeing his Kremlin-sponsored separatists on the run in the face of a rejuvenated Ukrainian army – was all for [...]
Putin has won in Ukraine – but the West can still salvage the long game

September 1, 2014

There’s only one way to make a fortune, and that’s to down the fellow who’s up against you." W Somerset Maugham, on poker ONE OF the many wonderful traditions at St Andrews University is that, if a student did well, they did not have to sit final exams until their last year. As a result, [...]
Nato can save us from Putin – but only if Europe gets serious about its military

August 31, 2014

For my sins, early in my Washington career I was sent to literally scores of high-level North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) meetings, frustratingly all on the same beside-the-point topic. Stripped of its finery, basically every conclave revolved around finding another mission for the most successful politico-military alliance in the history of the world, now that [...]
The West’s critical analytical flaw that spawned 80 years of Mid East failure

August 25, 2014

Once again in Iraq – like some diabolical version of Bill Murray’s predicament in the peerless Groundhog Day – Western countries are arming the locals, with the US launching air strikes to stabilise a situation unhinged at least in part by our own doing. And yet we are surprised. Why does this keep happening? Simply [...]
Maliki’s ignominious exit is good for Iraq – now let’s hope he goes quietly

August 12, 2014

As is often the case, Nouri al-Maliki’s Iraqi government found itself abandoned by even its oldest friends in the end. As the internal revolt within his Dawa Party to replace him as Prime Minister gathered pace, Maliki found his old buttresses of support had quietly buckled. The Americans had finally given up on him in [...]
Obama’s got it right: Why it’s in the West’s interest to help the Kurds out

August 11, 2014

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” For the second time in this doleful summer, the Islamic State (IS) has astounded the world. Following its stunning success in June – snatching and then consolidating territorial gains in eastern Syria and western Iraq into a terrorist state the [...]
Israel and Hamas both think they won in Gaza: This crisis is doomed to fester

August 5, 2014

After four weeks, the guns over Gaza have been stilled, at least temporarily, as a three-day ceasefire has gone into effect. Further, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – satisfied that, in destroying 32 tunnels, it has significantly (if temporarily) degraded Hamas’s ability to directly strike Israel proper – has announced it is leaving the Palestinian [...]
Dagger in the Kremlin’s heart: Europe’s sanctions have revived a comatose West

July 30, 2014

“We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender.” John O’Donohue, Irish poet MY GOD, they’ve finally done something. In the end, it wasn’t the horrific shooting down of MH17 – highly likely by Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine – that goaded a seemingly inert Europe into decisive action. Even after this [...]
Putin has exposed a chilling truth about the West: It no longer exists

July 22, 2014

Somehow Europe’s leaders have managed to undershoot even my subterranean expectations. Ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting yesterday to plan a common response to the Malaysia Airlines atrocity, leaks made it all too clear that this whole process would not amount to much. But the results – even for the EU – are almost comically [...]

HSBC: City market’s top firm turns to Asia and Middle East

Premiership run-in: Saints and Bath will impact top four

Here We Are, National Theatre, review: Stephen Sondheim musical is more Severance than sing-a-long

By: John Hulsman

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