Welcome to the summer issue of The World Today.
More than three months since the United States and Israel began their war upon Iran, all that is clear are the gathering consequences in and beyond the region. Catherine Ashton, a veteran at the highest level of talks with Iran, eyes up the state of negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Enemies though Iran and Israel may be, they share a single desire: to dominate the Middle East. Gulf states need unity and support to counter them, writes Rashid al-Mohanadi. Could the conflict normalize global food crises? Yes, says Arif Husain, the World Food Programme’s chief economist, but largely due to a failure of political will. And having seen the effects of the Strait of Hormuz’s closure, Nitya Labh warns of the vulnerability of the world’s other maritime chokepoints.
Elsewhere in the issue, Olivia O’Sullivan talks to Lawrence Freedman about his time running the institute’s British Foreign Policy Project more than 40 years ago, and how its concerns echo down the decades. We are pleased to launch ‘The World Tomorrow’, a new strand looking at where global order might be heading – Chatham House’s Grégoire Roos gets us started with a vision of how Europe might find a new role. Europe certainly needs a new way to defend itself, argues Glyn Morgan ahead of the Nato summit, but can it free itself from critical dependencies on the US? The football World Cup is upon us. How does the tournament’s smallest nation feel about qualifying? Mario Heller visited Curaçao to find out. All this, plus Gen Z’s hopes and fears, the politics of the wolf, summer reading recommendations and much more. Something for everyone, we hope.
Mike Higgins Mhiggins@chathamhouse.org