Infrastructure diplomacy has become a central arena for strategic competition. This column examines how China’s Belt and Road Initiative has reshaped Japan’s overseas infrastructure engagement and diplomacy with participants of the initiative. It finds that Japanese project counts fell and foreign leaders visited Japan less often. To be successful, Western initiatives such as Build Back Better World and the EU’s Global Gateway need coordinated strategies and rapid deployment mechanisms. They should also integrate infrastructure finance with strategic diplomacy, ensuring that development efforts reinforce political engagement instead of attempting to replace it.

Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

Students of private and grammar schools are over-represented in elite universities, but only part of that is explained by better grades.

The Downing Battcock Institute aims to provide a safe space where harassed policymakers can meet academics and contemplate offbeat ideas over ‘nice dinners’

Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

An event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test, held at the Royal Society on 2 October 2025.