Strategic Influence

A “new normal”: Tracking the rise of global conflict

Global violence is becoming more frequent and less restrained. States and armed groups are normalising harm to civilians. Data shows protest, insurgency, and conflict spreading—challenging assumptions about stability.

The mood-enhancing benefits of caffeine are strongest right after waking up

Research shows caffeine lifts positive mood most strongly soon after waking. The effect fades as the day goes on. It seems to boost enthusiasm more than it reduces stress—making timing, fatigue, and context key to everyday performance and wellbeing.

Strategic Influence

Ukraine launches attacks on Russia's shadow fleet in foreign waters

Ukraine is targeting oil tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet beyond its waters. The strikes aim to cut war funding, expose sanction gaps, and highlight rising risks to shipping, energy supply, and undersea infrastructure.

Strategic Influence

China raises the cost of Indonesia’s neutrality

China is steadily shaping Indonesia’s development choices—making neutrality harder to sustain—by linking growth, finance and political recognition in ways that quietly raise the cost of resisting Beijing’s core interests.

Military History

Why Hitler declared war on the United States

Hitler seized Pearl Harbor as the moment to formalise a long-planned clash with the United States. Japan’s entry promised naval weight and distraction—so Berlin rushed to declare war first and widen the conflict fast.

Strategic Influence

Why North Korea is modernising its conventional arsenal

North Korea is rebuilding its conventional forces using Russian funding and battlefield lessons. This shift widens regional risk, adds non-nuclear pressure options, and points to faster arms competition shaped by modern warfare experience.

Air & Space Power

Air New Zealand tests a new generation of electric planes

Air New Zealand is testing electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, exploring sustainable alternatives to conventional aviation. Early trials focus on short regional cargo flights and hydrogen fuel systems, advancing cleaner, low-emission flight technologies.

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Strategic Influence

A “new normal”: Tracking the rise of global conflict

Global violence is becoming more frequent and less restrained. States and armed groups are normalising harm to civilians. Data shows protest, insurgency, and conflict spreading—challenging assumptions about stability.

The mood-enhancing benefits of caffeine are strongest right after waking up

Research shows caffeine lifts positive mood most strongly soon after waking. The effect fades as the day goes on. It seems to boost enthusiasm more than it reduces stress—making timing, fatigue, and context key to everyday performance and wellbeing.

Strategic Influence

Ukraine launches attacks on Russia's shadow fleet in foreign waters

Ukraine is targeting oil tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet beyond its waters. The strikes aim to cut war funding, expose sanction gaps, and highlight rising risks to shipping, energy supply, and undersea infrastructure.

Communication & Cognition

What Did the Biophilia Hypothesis Get Wrong?

Biophilia (affinity with nature) is not universal or purely instinctive. Cultural and individual differences exist, shaped by both environment and genetics, with roughly half of nature connectedness attributable to heredity and distributed like personality traits.

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