Irregular: Looking back
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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M. C. Escher
13 min read
The article opens with a reference to Escher's 'Spherical Self Portrait' woodcut from 1950, using it as a metaphor for self-reflection. Readers would benefit from understanding Escher's unique artistic techniques, his fascination with impossible geometries and self-referential imagery, and why his work resonates with themes of perspective and hidden structures.
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Political risk
13 min read
The article discusses a geopolitical advisory firm's work helping companies navigate political uncertainty, scenario planning, and strategic positioning. Understanding the formal concept of geopolitical risk—how it's measured, its impact on markets and corporate decision-making—provides essential context for the firm's intelligence and strategy services described.
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2023 French pension reform strikes
11 min read
The article specifically references 'Parisians in the streets for their thirteenth consecutive day of protests against Macron's pension reforms' as a marker of when Geopolitical Dispatch launched. This was one of the largest protest movements in recent French history, and understanding its scale, causes, and outcomes illustrates the kind of geopolitical events the publication covers.
Hello from Melbourne,
In today’s Irregular, I want to do something a little different. Not a review of the world: Michael will take that on next week, surveying the big trends, what mattered, and what changed.
Instead, this is a brief reflection on us, on our company Geopolitical Strategy, and on the hidden machinery behind Geopolitical Dispatch. Because while you read Geopolitical Dispatch each day, you don’t necessarily see what sits beneath it: the work, the people, the decisions, and the ambitions that make this publication, and our firm, what it is.
Consider this, then, a small year-end note of thanks, explanation, and invitation. A little primer on who we are, why we do this, how our year unfolded, and where we’re going next. And, equally, a feeler for anyone interested in working in geopolitics, partnering with us, or deepening their institution’s ability to understand and use geopolitical insight.
In an AI-slop-dominated world — incidentally, the Economist’s “word of the year”, which I am reticent to put between em-dashes — it also feels worthwhile to show the human face behind what you read each morning.
As with most stories, it’s best to start at the beginning.
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The beginning
Geopolitical Dispatch began on 1 May 2023, when we sent our first edition. That day, Parisians were in the streets for their thirteenth consecutive day of protests against Macron’s pension reforms. Some things do not change. Erdoğan announced that Turkey’s intelligence services had assassinated the leader of the Islamic State in Syria, a country whose president, once associated with that terrorist organisation, would soon enough appear at Davos and in the Oval Office. Some things do change.
And then there was us, writing our first public “hello world.”
Two years later, by May 2025, Geopolitical Dispatch had grown to over 8,000 subscribers, all “organically”, to put it in marketing jargon we’ve now, after a few years in business, become all too familiar with.
But more important than numbers are people: both the people reading and the people doing the work.
On icebergs
What you read in Geopolitical Dispatch each day is the visible tip of a much larger
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