Le Monde diplomatique - English edition

Food shocks

Benjamin Selwyn — 2026-06-23T11:23:50Z

The agricultural sector's entrenched dependence on fertiliser has exposed it to geopolitical instability. Contemporary struggles over supply are nothing new. The closure over the past months of the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes roughly one third of internationally traded fertiliser, choked off a vital artery of the global food system. Modern agriculture is built on synthetic fertilisers, locking farmers into an input-intensive system driven by competition, profit and state (…)

- Outside in / Comment

Beyond Rafah's gates, a politics of life and death

Hamada Elrasam & Elle Kurancid — 2026-06-17T15:56:39Z

On the road from Cairo to the Egypt–Gaza border, passing through no fewer than ten security checkpoints, a bus convoy of over 150 Egyptian journalists inched towards the gates of an internationally enabled genocide. It was 19 January 2025, and this state-organised expedition – a 20-hour round trip from the capital, with up to two hours on the ground at the Rafah crossing – represented the Egyptian press's sole opportunity to witness firsthand the isolated, militarised doorstep to the (…)

- Outside in / Comment

June: the longer view

2026-06-16T14:30:52Z

The month's archives

- 2026/06 / perspective

Empires dismantled

Cécile Marin — 2026-06-01T09:27:20Z

- Europe / Map, 2026/06 poland

Ethnic homogeneity by force

Cécile Marin — 2026-06-01T09:27:18Z

- Europe / Map, 2026/06 poland

Mali divided

Cécile Marin — 2026-06-01T09:26:47Z

- Africa / Map, 2026/06 mali

West Africa's cocaine connection

Tangi Bihan & Keïsha Corantin — 2026-06-01T09:26:23Z

Cocaine production and use are at record levels worldwide. West Africa has become a major transit hub, where traffickers exploit weak states, under-resourced enforcement and high-level corruption.

- 2026/06 / article

The Russiagate fiasco

Vadim Nikitin — 2026-06-01T09:26:21Z

In 2016 Christopher Steele, a former MI6 operative who had moved into business intelligence, compiled a now notorious dossier alleging collusion between Donald Trump, then a US presidential candidate, and the Kremlin. Its claims proved unfounded.

- 2026/06 / article

School for spies

Hager Ben Jaffel — 2026-06-01T09:26:20Z

The Diploma in Intelligence and Global Threats (DiReM) course at Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye – known as the ‘Malotru Diploma' or ‘School for Spies' – sets out to train the next generation of French intelligence agents.

- 2026/06 / article

When it comes to China, America has a plan

Evgeny Morozov — 2026-06-01T09:26:19Z

AI competition with China is driving the United States' new fusion of military power, industrial planning and private capital. Countries are lining up behind the US strategy.

- 2026/06 / article