The World Today is the magazine from Chatham House, one of the world’s most prestigious international affairs think tanks. With its formidable convening power and rigorous research, Chatham House brings together leading policymakers, politicians, thought leaders and businesspeople to debate and offer solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. 

The World Today takes its readers into the heart of those debates. In each edition, world-renowned authorities, journalists and Chatham House experts contribute to the magazine’s sharp and influential mix of analysis and commentary, interviews and original reporting.

Recent contributors have included: International Crisis Group president Comfort Ero; European Commissioner for Defence Industry and Space Andrius Kubilius; and Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s former top diplomat, among other high-profile figures.

In the free trial issue, read about Sapphire Mining in Madagascar, Somalia and Ethiopia caught in a quagmire, The Kurdish Question, Private Security Companies in Iraq, the ANC Leadership issue in South Africa, and The Bali Climate Conference and Forests. 

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