lmdiplo

Open access // by Antonio Negri (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, September 1998)

AI competition with China is driving the United States' new fusion of military power, industrial planning and private capital. Countries are lining up behind the US strategy.

Even the drawdown of 400 million barrels of oil has barely contained price rises. For gas, there is as yet no globally coordinated system for emergencies.

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Brexit has strained ties with Britain and renewed talk of a united Ireland.

Place an order at Yiwu International Trade Market and a vast network of Chinese manufacturing springs into action. The goods may not be high-end, but this market has an extraordinary global reach.

Kazakhstan's vast mining and industrial complexes remain vital today, but output figures conceal hazardous working conditions and fragmented communities.

by Victoria Jones & Henry McCabe (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, March 2026)

Bhutan has never been colonised. In 1907 a hereditary monarchy replaced the old dual system of temporal and spiritual power, the latter based on (…)

The concept of soft power - winning hearts and minds as a way of creating allies and avoiding conflict - took off after the cold war. But it's never been as benign as its neoliberal advocates would have us believe.

The future will run on batteries and the technology is improving all the time. But the bigger and more efficient the battery, the harder it is to recycle. And that's a challenge we've barely begun to grapple with.