The World Today: Winter 2025: China is way ahead in the tech stakes

The Russian president’s specious justifications for the war in Ukraine mean he won’t stop there. But time is running out for Europe to formulate a defence strategy, writes Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Ukrainians on the frontline in Kherson tell Olga Tokariuk how they withstand daily enemy attacks – by sheltering under trees, staying indoors on clear days and with netting over the roads.

President Trump’s threats towards Greenland and rumoured American mineral deals with Russia mean NATO allies can no longer rely on the US in the High North. Britain could help fill the military gap, writes Minna Ålander.

China’s tech revolution is accelerating, leaving the West scrambling to catch up. With 2026 around the corner, Chatham House experts assess the year’s potential flashpoints. Could a ‘climate dashboard’ tackle public apathy about the climate crisis? All this and more in the winter issue of ‘The World Today’.

The barrister and author speaks to Olivia O’Sullivan about Britain’s relationship with Europe, the European Union’s loss of connection with voters and what being married to Boris Johnson taught her about Brexit.

The Democratic strategist tells Iona Allan what the party could learn from New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and the ‘supermajority thinking’ that it must adopt to win in the 2026 midterms and beyond.

In the country’s first electoral test since Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power, a continuing cycle of ‘revenge politics’ and economic instability dampen hopes for democratic reform, writes James Orr.

Patrick Schröder and Muyiwa Oyinlola visit a project using solar-powered ‘mini-grids’ to bring electricity to rural communities with local know-how and Chinese technology.

The Gang Suppression Force will be more than 5,500 strong. But as another power vacuum looms in February, the international community is ignoring Haiti’s deeper problems, writes Jacqueline Charles.

Are you an envoy worried about how to adapt as the international system buckles? Then Nicholas Westcott’s guide to diplomatic survival in the new era of hard power is the place to start.

Photographer Tommy Trenchard tells Iona Allan about his journey along the 800-mile Lobito Railway and how a multi billion-dollar investment by the US and European interests is heating up a global race to secure supplies of copper, cobalt and other resources needed for the green energy transition.

Interview: Rowan Wilkinson tells Sara Seth about the lessons the UK could learn from Ukraine in building digital infrastructure that serves both public and national security interests.

Swathes of the public are understandably disengaged from the climate crisis and the COP is increasingly irrelevant – a clear, annual assessment of the key data could help, write Jonathon Porritt and Robin Maynard.

Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmed tells Iona Allan about ‘Khartoum’, the documentary he co-directed, which explores the lives and memories of five people exiled by the civil war.

Nitazenes are as dangerous as fentanyl and linked to more than 750 deaths in the UK alone since 2023. Further international cooperation with China, their main source, will help – as long as geopolitics doesn’t interfere, says Philip Berry.

The new director of Chatham House’s Africa Programme on the day a former Nigerian President ended up in a police van outside the institute, what the world can learn from African solidarity and the growing power of Afrobeats music.

Were you paying attention during another rollercoaster year in global affairs? It’s time to test your knowledge in our multiple-choice quiz

From China’s greatest spying coups to how you spot a ‘grey rhino’ crisis, here are the books the institute’s members borrowed most.

A potted selection of reviews from our sister journal ‘International Affairs’, by its book reviews editor Mariana Vieira.