The Ledger
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 — combining the world's largest oil exporter, NATO's second-largest army and the Muslim world's only nuclear arsenal. The war was supposed to protect the Gulf. This is what it built instead.
Hand-picked stories from the newsroom
Analysis
Lebanon abolished the death penalty on August 11, the first in the Middle East. The same parliament cannot enforce Israeli withdrawal from its south or prosecute the Beirut port explosion. The moral ambition and the institutional failure live in the same building.
6 min read
Analysis
Lebanon abolished the death penalty on August 11, the first in the Middle East. The same parliament cannot enforce Israeli withdrawal from its south or prosecute the Beirut port explosion. The moral ambition and the institutional failure live in the same building.
6 min read
Analysis
Hamas committed to implementing Trump's 15-point Gaza plan. Netanyahu rejected it at a cabinet meeting, by name, on the record. The White House said nothing. The obstacle to peace in Gaza is not where the established narrative has always said it was.
Analysis
Trump refused Ukraine 300 Patriot interceptors because the Iran war used them up. Ukraine intercepted none of the incoming Russian missiles that night. 17 died in Kyiv. The Iran war has not just given Putin diplomatic relief. It has given him the airspace.
Analysis
Lebanon's State Security warned the president about the ammonium nitrate 15 days before it exploded. He admitted receiving the warning. Six years later, nobody has been prosecuted. The obstruction was not a failure of the system. It was the system.
Analysis
Israeli soldiers nearly struck settlers they mistook for infiltrators on Syrian soil. The group is called fringe. Lebanon's deputy PM warns: Gush Emunim was also a small group facing obstacles. It built the West Bank. The Pioneers of Bashan are laying foundation stones in Syria.
The Nuremberg Files is DiploPolis's ongoing investigation into the promise of universal accountability — what it meant, what it became and what its failure costs the world.
India Examined is DiploPolis's ongoing analysis of Indian foreign policy since 2014. What India claims to be in the world. What it actually is. And what the gap between those two things costs.
Regions
6 min read
5 min read
3 min read
3 min read
6 min read
3 min read
6 min read
3 min read
3 min read
Guides, rankings and resources for students, professionals and serious readers of international affairs.
Explainers
5 min read
Explainers
9 min read
Explainers
8 min read
Explainers
8 min read
Explainers
8 min read
Explainers
8 min read
Explainers
7 min read
Explainers
9 min read
Explainers
8 min read
Analysis
The Ledger
Books & Ideas
The Ledger
Analysis
The Ledger
The Ledger
The Dossier
210 stories
