Independent analysis of political, economic, strategic, religious, and societal forces across Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
State & Strait brings together independent research, strategic analysis and historical perspective on the region’s most consequential developments.
Politics
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Who Wants What at Mount Sinai? Mapping the Interests Around Saint Catherine’s Monastery
The dispute surrounding Saint Catherine’s Monastery is no longer merely a question of historical title. Around the monastery now converge Egypt’s plans for the economic transformation of southern Sinai, increasingly concentrated Emirati investment structures, Russian ecclesiastical networks and competing international efforts to preserve the institutional and cultural character of one of Christianity’s oldest living monasteries.… Read More
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A New Surge of Realism
Drawing on the electoral victory of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the state elections of Saxony-Anhalt, where the party received 43.8 per cent of the second vote and secured 39 of the 83 seats in the Landtag, a shift at the centre of Europe appears to be taking shape, one that may begin to spread… Read More
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Israel’s Election of Reckoning: Netanyahu, Eisenkot and the Struggle Over the Post-War State
Israel’s October election is not simply another contest between Benjamin Netanyahu and a centrist challenger. It is increasingly a struggle over the political model that will govern the country after years of war: coalition survival or institutional reconstruction, selective privilege or universal service, personalised leadership or the return of the security-technocratic state. Israel will vote… Read More
Intelligence
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Why Informants Talk: Motivation, Trust and the Human Bridges of Intelligence Networks
Human intelligence is shaped not only by why people choose to provide information, but by the relationships, intermediaries and social structures that make clandestine cooperation possible and sustainable. Human intelligence is often represented through the institutional architecture of intelligence organisations: services, stations, directorates, collection requirements, case officers, analysts and policymakers. Such representations are useful for… Read More
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Venetian Intelligence Operations in Crete: Espionage, Local Networks and the War of Candia
Long before intelligence became the domain of specialised agencies, permanent staff and technical collection systems, the Republic of Venice had already developed one of the most sophisticated information apparatuses of the early modern world. Diplomats, governors, merchants, couriers, cryptographers, military officers, informants and clandestine agents formed an extensive network designed to provide the Venetian state… Read More
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Armatoloi and Klephts in the Crossfire of Empire: Local Power, Intelligence and Imperial Rivalry in Ottoman Greece
Long before intelligence became a specialised function of the modern state, political power in the Ottoman Balkans depended heavily on people who knew the terrain, controlled armed followers, maintained connections across communities and could provide access to information unavailable to distant authorities. Among the most important of these intermediaries were the armatoloi and klephts of… Read More
History
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The Republic of Koritza: France, Northern Epirus and the Struggle for Political Control, 1916–1920
How French military strategy displaced Greek political authority and created an Albanian-administered buffer zone in one of the most contested regions of the Balkans In December 1916, while the armies of Europe were locked in a conflict stretching from Flanders to Mesopotamia, an unusual political experiment appeared in the mountains of Northern Epirus. Koritza had… Read More
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From Stratiōtēs to Stradioti: Language, Warfare and Identity in the Balkans
For more than two thousand years, the Greek word στρατιώτης – stratiōtēs, has meant a soldier. Yet during the final centuries of Byzantium and the expansion of Venetian power into the eastern Mediterranean, the same word began to acquire a more specific meaning. In Italian and Western European sources, the stratiōtēs gradually became the stradiotto… Read More
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The Bektashi Order: Faith, Nationalism and Political Power in the Balkans
Within the geographical confines of Anatolia and the Balkans, the Bektashi Order has intricately interwoven a notable tapestry of spiritual and cultural influence. Originating in Anatolia during the 13th century, this esoteric Sufi sect has transcended geographical demarcations, imprinting a discernible impact upon the religious and cultural topography of the Western Balkans. This scholarly exposition… Read More