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Global Affairs Session 26 30 April 2026 WHY UAE LEFT OPEC Oil nationalism, Saudi rivalry and the struggle for market share This session examines the oil-market logic behind the UAE’s break with OPEC: an economy with low production costs and diversified revenues seeks greater sales volume and market share, while Saudi Arabia requires higher prices and stricter production cuts. The dispute extends into Gulf leadership, OPEC+ relations with Russia, American strategy, Asian demand and the growing need to finance hydrogen, ammonia and renewable-energy ambitions.

Global Affairs Session 25 29 April 2026 FROM PLAZA 1985 TO IRAN 2026 How the World Changed The Plaza Accord did not cause the Iran war, but it helped shape the dollar-centred financial system, Asia’s manufacturing and energy-demand structure, and the globalised economy through which a regional conflict now transmits worldwide economic and geopolitical consequences.

Global Affairs Session 24 28 April 2026 THE PLAZA ACCORD: HOW JAPAN WAS DESTROYED What China (and Iran) are doing This session traces U.S.-Japan relations from war and occupation to alliance and trade imbalance, then argues that the 1985 Plaza Accord’s yen appreciation weakened Japan’s export engine, encouraged monetary expansion, inflated an asset bubble and contributed to long-term stagnation. It then presents the lessons China - and states watching the Iran war of 2026 - may draw about currency control, strategic autonomy, sanctions-proof finance and vulnerable chokepoints.

Global Affairs Session 23 27 April 2026 DOLLAR MILKSHAKE THEORY Will de-dollarization kill it? De-dollarization and dollar strength can operate at the same time. Global financial stress may pull liquidity towards United States assets and strengthen the dollar in the short run, while sanctions, alternative payment systems, reserve diversification and wider access to dollar swap lines may gradually weaken long-term dependence on it.

Global Affairs Session 22 24 April 2026 THE GULF STATES: BETWEEN DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA How prosperity, geography and security dependence expose the Gulf during a regional crisis The Gulf states convert energy wealth into high living standards, modern infrastructure and global influence. Yet the same geography that makes the region strategically valuable also exposes it to disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, military escalation, supply-chain shocks and dependence on external security guarantees.

Global Affairs Session 21 23 April 2026 IRAN WAR 2026 – THE FULL STORY From the Shah-era alliance to the fragile April 2026 standoff The Iran War of 2026 emerged from decades of accumulated hostility: the fall of the Shah, the hostage crisis, the Iran–Iraq War, Hezbollah’s rise, the nuclear dispute, the collapse of the JCPOA and increasingly direct conflict between Iran and Israel. This session follows that full chain from the early 1970s to the unresolved standoff of 22 April 2026.

Global Affairs Session 20 22 April 2026 AMERICA'S WARS: WHO BENEFITS? Following the economic, institutional and political winners created by war This session examines who can gain when the United States enters or sustains wars. Defence contractors, energy companies, private military firms and reconstruction businesses may obtain direct commercial benefits, while governments, military institutions, intelligence agencies and political leaders may gain budgets, authority, influence or short-term public support.

Global Affairs Session 19 21 April 2026 THE DONROE DOCTRINE From the Monroe Doctrine to a Trump-era policy of hemispheric dominance The 1823 Monroe Doctrine warned European powers against colonisation and interference in the Americas. This session then examines the “Donroe Doctrine,” presented as a 2026-era reinterpretation associated with the second Trump administration: a more assertive effort to preserve American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, restrict Russian and Chinese influence, secure strategic resources and apply military, trade and sanctions pressure. It also considers the implications for India.

Global Affairs Session 18 20 April 2026 END OF GLOBALIZATION & IMPACT ON INDIA From prosperity and interdependence to protectionism, rivalry and fractured supply chains Globalization promised freer movement of goods, capital, ideas and people, along with prosperity and stability. It expanded trade, investment and India’s economic opportunities, but unequal gains, China’s manufacturing rise, political backlash, geopolitical rivalry and protectionist policies have pushed the system into reverse.

Global Affairs Session 17 17 April 2026 DEADLY PETRO-IMPERIALISM OF USA Oil power, Big Oil and the politics of intervention This session examines the argument that American power in oil-rich regions is shaped by petro-imperialism: the use of political, economic and military influence to secure energy interests. It connects fossil-fuel dependence, global oil reserves, Big Oil’s influence over United States politics and the consumer cost of military escalation, while invoking Smedley Butler’s warning about war and business.

Global Affairs Session 16 16 April 2026 WHY IS NATO FRACTURING? From Cold War collective defence to contemporary alliance strain NATO was created after the Second World War as a collective-security alliance centred on Article 5. It survived the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, expanded after 1991 and took on wider security roles. Yet Donald Trump’s transactional approach, uncertainty over alliance commitments and different pressures arising from the Ukraine and Iran conflicts have exposed important political and strategic strains.

Global Affairs Session 15 15 April 2026 AN ERA OF WAR Multiple conflicts, hard power politics and the arrival of prolonged instability The world is not in one declared global war, but multiple regional conflicts are unfolding simultaneously and creating wider instability. The post-Cold War phase of cooperation is weakening as military strength, territorial control and coercion return to the centre of statecraft.

Global Affairs Session 14 14 April 2026 MESSY NEW WORLD ORDER AWAITS US A messy multilateralism awaits The United States built the post-1945 order and remained its dominant pole until China emerged as a second true pole. Washington preferred a controlled transition, but Russia’s 2022 system shock, Iran’s regional leverage, Europe’s uneven rise and the manoeuvring of swing states are producing a fragmented, layered and transactional order instead.

Global Affairs Session 13 13 April 2026 RAY DALIO & THIRD WORLD WAR The Big Cycle, weakening global order and a de facto world war Ray Dalio argues that the world has already entered an undeclared, prolonged global conflict resembling a world war. Interconnected regional wars, shifting alliances, declining US dominance, rising geopolitical fragmentation and historical “Big Cycle” patterns point towards escalating multi-front conflict, economic warfare and systemic breakdown of the post-1945 global order.

Global Affairs Session 12 10 April 2026 THE FORGOTTEN IRAN-IRAQ WAR 1980-88 The war that forged modern Iran The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War grew from fear of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, leadership rivalry, the Shatt al-Arab territorial dispute and Iraq's belief that post-revolution Iran was vulnerable. It evolved from invasion and counter-offensives into trench warfare, human-wave attacks, chemical warfare and the Tanker War, ending without a clear winner but leaving a lasting imprint on Iran's institutions, strategic outlook and distrust of the West.