We often think of vulnerability as weakness – but what if it’s the very thing that connects us all? 

In this Transforming Business episode, Martin Parker speaks with Melissa Tyler, author of Organizing Vulnerability, abo...

In late March 2026, the view from the Iranian plateau confirms a timeless strategic error: confusing military reach with political control.

Operation Epic Fury, launched four weeks ago, met its kinetic objectives by neutralising Iran’s senior leadership within hours. US and Israeli strikes decapitated the Iranian leadership and dismantled its conventional command struc...

An elderly woman sits with her hands tied behind her back while a young woman drapes coloured paper garlands around her neck. Nearby, another woman in an underdress forces a glass of champagne to her lips, while a clown grimaces in the background. A man in evening dress is enjoying the performance, glass in hand.

This grotesque scene from a masquerade ball is framed by...

Nearly 150 years after the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction warned of Britain’s lagging workforce, today’s skills crisis shows that history may be repeating itself.

Policy makers have long been concerned about workforce productivity. In the 1880s, the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, chaired by industrialist Bernhard Samuelson, sounded an early alarm...

During his stay in Tahiti in the 1890s, Paul Gauguin created a painting that is regarded as among his masterpieces: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? His focus was on the cycle of life, but these big existential questions apply just as well to societies and their institutions, and they have often come into my mind as I’ve been working on the What is it f...