Dear Reader, if this week’s headlines felt like they were snagging on the same thread, it’s because they were. There is no such thing as a localized crisis anymore. Whether the high-stakes rooms in Tehran or a tense interception in the Mediterranean, the news this week has seemed to circle on one uncomfortable question: How quickly can a fire in one corner of the globe set the rest of the world ablaze? The answer, as we’ve seen over the last seven days, is: instantly. We are now looking at a week defined by the U.S.–Iran stalemate that somehow still refuses to break, a diplomatic crisis over the Global Sumud Flotilla, and a global economy that, as the UN warns, is simply losing its footing. While EU trade diplomacy appears to be a rare step of optimism, the overarching theme of the week is clear: geopolitics is no longer something that ha...