Policy and Critique

A child born in Cox's Bazar to Rohingya parents in 2018 is eight years old in 2026. She has never been a citizen of any country. She will not become one unless a political decision is made by a government that has already decided she does not exist. This is not an edge case. It is a category with at least ten million members.

In 2024, Germany received more political credit for hosting Ukrainian refugees than any country in the world. Lebanon, which hosts a refugee population comprising more than 25% of its total population and has done so for over a decade, received a fraction of that attention. A single index reveals why the arithmetic of generosity is almost entirely wrong.

In 1992, UNHCR opened a camp in northern Kenya for Somali refugees fleeing civil war. It was designed as a temporary measure. In March 2026, it is still operating. The data on protracted displacement tells a story that the word 'temporary' was never equipped to describe.

The geography of the periodic table is the new geography of power. In the 20th century, geopolitics was governed by the distribution of hydrocarbons; in the 21st, it is governed by the concentration of critical elements.

The extraction of lithium from the 'Lithium Triangle' in South America represents one of the most significant interventions in the Earth's hydrological cycle.

A series exploring the lithium scarcity paradox, from extraction challenges to circular economy solutions and geopolitical implications.

The history of human progress is a record of material dependence where the era of dominance is named after the enabling substance: stone, bronze, and iron.

Analyzing how the East India Company systematically dismantled the Mughal Empire through economic extraction and administrative co-optation rather than military conquest.

Examining the ideological conflict between Akbar's inclusive syncretism and Aurangzeb's orthodox rigidity, defining the apogee and beginning of the Mughal decline.

Analyzing how Babur's descent from Central Asia established the Mughal Empire, combining gunpowder technology with administrative sophistication.