When alliances become transactional, the assumptions behind a strategy can change quickly.

For three decades, many boards could treat geopolitics as background. Trade rules were broadly stable. Alliances rested largely on shared values and multilateralism. Security was seen as the business of governments. That is changing.

What corporate governance reveals about the missing checks in political leadership.

We debate corporate governance with real precision now. In boardrooms, we have spent two decades building structure around one problem: stopping a single set of hands, however capable, from holding both the content of decisions and the process that tests them. The separation of chair and chief executive exists to solve exactly that. It is also the right lens for a harder question. Who chairs the state?

The leaders worth watching have already built their plans on the assumption that the room stays this narrow.

Every leader operates with a margin. It is the room to absorb a bad quarter, a hostile headline, a supply shock, an election that goes the wrong way. For most of the past two decades, that margin was wide. Leadership in politics and in business could afford to look confident without being precise.

Europe still treats the Mediterranean through a post-colonial lens—a neighborhood to be managed rather than a market to be integrated.

Ask any board director to locate the Mediterranean on their strategic map and you will find it stranded between categories—too Southern for Europe, too Northern for Africa, too Western for the Gulf. This categorical failure is costing companies real money and compounding geopolitical risk in ways boards are not yet registering.

Markets reward audacity, until suddenly, they don't.

We are living through a peculiar moment in corporate governance: boards are simultaneously being urged to “think bigger” while navigating the most fractured geopolitical and economic landscape in generations. Markets reward audacity, until suddenly, they don’t. And when the music stops, it isn’t the activist investors or algorithmic traders who bear the full weight of failure. It’s pension fund beneficiaries, employees, suppliers, and entire communities left to pick up the pieces.

European boards face a paradox that traditional financial analysis cannot solve: Why is access to credit tightening even as central banks ease monetary policy?

European boards face a paradox that traditional financial analysis cannot solve: Why is access to credit tightening even as central banks ease monetary policy?

The answer lies not in balance sheets, but on geopolitical maps.

Peace is not the end of disruption. It is where the real competition begins.

Peace is often misread as a pause. A return to normal. A collective exhale. It is neither.

Peace is not defined by the absence of conflict, but by whether the conditions that caused it have been transformed.

The next day after conflict is not a return. It is a reallocation of power, capital, and relevance. Those who understand it early, shape peace.

French president says attack on island is ‘an attack on Europe’ as EU states send military support.

Emmanuel Macron has vowed that Europe will do whatever it takes to stand by Cyprus, the continent’s first state to be directly affected by the Iran war, after coming under what he described as “attack from multiple drones and missiles.”

“This is about Europe making her presence felt in the region when there are so many moving parts, so many unknowns,” said Cleopatra Kitti, a senior policy adviser at the Athens-based thinktank, Eliamep.

A new report by the Mediterranean Growth Initiative, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Cyprus Office, and PRIO Cyprus Centre examines the challenges and opportunities facing the Eastern Mediterranean. Politis to the Point is the media partner of a webinar series, which explore its findings.

The Eastern Mediterranean is at a critical juncture, balancing immense economic potential with pressing challenges that threaten its stability and prosperity.

​A new report, "6 Facts About the Eastern Mediterranean," produced by Alma Economics, sheds light on the region’s interconnected dynamics, emphasizing the need for cooperation, inclusion, and bold investments in people and systems.

As a vulnerable frontline region, the Eastern Mediterranean cannot allow its future to be shaped by hard power alone; stability and growth depend on embedding energy, defense, and connectivity into credible governance frameworks that support multilateral cooperation and bankable investment.

The Eastern Mediterranean is entering a new phase of competition where legal claims, deterrence and sovereignty remain central, but they are increasingly prosecuted through capital allocation, infrastructure design and transactional politics. The rules of this game are not being renegotiated; they are being repriced.

Decide what really matters to you to have a healthy and peaceful life.

January has a reputation and a feeling. Blue and overblown.

The festive mood of December is gone and the weather is moody and our bank accounts and our waistlines are overblown. January is when taxes are due, insurance bills to pay, overdraft to be repaid, and adiet promised to lose the extra kilos. A combination for the strong willed.

And if that is not enough, the temptations to spend more money pursue our tempted mind. Birthdays, sales, Valentine’s, and a “fresh start” of the year trip around the corner.

Cleopatra Kitti highlights three core competencies needed for the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026 and why they matter.

“Drawing on its history, strategic location, and 21-year membership in the European Union, Cyprus has the credibility and capacity to serve as an honest broker on EU and global issues.”, she added.Cleopatra Kitti highlights three core competencies needed for the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026 and why they matter.

Rising geopolitical tension, rapid technological change, and a remapping of global trade, have brought financial resilience to front and center as the defining challenge for businesses, governments, and households alike.

Rising geopolitical tension, rapid technological change, and a remapping of global trade, have brought financial resilience to front and center as the defining challenge for businesses, governments, and households alike.

Across my recent work, research and discussions with business leaders, academics, and policymakers, one conclusion stands out: we are no longer living in a “normal” economic environment, and traditional approaches to managing risk are no longer enough.

The power of no in guiding your finances to shape your life.

We’re taught to say yes. 

Yes to opportunities. Yes to experiences. Yes to treating ourselves, all with one thought in mind. That “life is short”. But here is the unglamorous truth that Eastern philosophy, Stoic thinking and Western behavioural psychology strangely agree on, the word “no” is the most powerful freedom tool we have. 

Not the “yes”, but the “no”. 

No is a boundary, a strategy and a financial self-defense. 

"You can’t beat the system by ignoring it. You beat it by understanding it."

The financial system wasn’t built for ordinary people. It was built around and about them to extract value from their work, savings, and spending. 

The rules of money have long favored the markets, the banks, and the financial services providers. They win whether prices rise or fall. They earn fees, interest, and margins while most people struggle to keep up.

But here’s the truth they don’t tell you: you can’t beat the system by ignoring it. You beat it by understanding it.

You can be asset-rich but cash-poor, and it’s cash flow, not assets, that decides whether you can actually sleep at night.

Athena was mid-career change when she had to navigate a bigger mind shift: She was asset rich, but cash poor. To be in control of her life, make decisions to redirect her wellbeing, she needed to be cash rich. “It took me a year to get my cash flow in a place where I felt confident about my finances.  It was a must-do exercise to have flexibility and choice to get my house in order. It was not an easy task; it involved paying off expensive debt, sustaining a household, and getting kids through college whilst changing jobs.

Amid conflict and fragmentation, Cyprus takes the EU helm to steer crucial financial talks and prove that neutrality can be strength.

As Cyprus assumes its second Presidency of the European Union, it steps into a role defined by crisis and change. The contrast with its first Presidency (2012) could not be sharper. Then, multilateralism prevailed; collaboration was possible, and conflict manageable. Today, multilateralism is under siege, conflicts dominate, and Europe faces existential challenges: its Union and Security, its Internal and Capital Markets, its Competitiveness, its Freedom and Values…

Matters of Life and Debt: In your 20's, 30's, and 40's, planning for your pension is a compounding effort that yields the best results when started as early as possible. Clarity on pension systems is a part of financial literacy that is obscured by the need for short-term gains, compromising long-term vision.

In her 20’s Caroline dreamt of an international career. She loved traveling, exploring new cultures, learning something new, and pushing boundaries of potential. While Caroline is a real person, I’m using that name as an alias to respect her wish for anonymity.   

Determined to live the life of a global nomad, she got her breakthrough with a consulting job in London at the age of 30. The sky was the limit; she ran an international career alongside building a family life, moved across regions, building projects and business in Europe, Middle East and Africa…

Anna’s story of divorce and debt shows how understanding how borrowing and interest work can empower women to make informed choices and safeguard their independence.

Anna’s divorce left her not only healing the wounds of lost love but also dealing with significant debt.  

So much was her emotional pain that she walked straight into the legal proceedings of getting a divorce as quickly as possible without negotiating assets and liabilities of the joint wealth…