https://dekilpeck.co.uk/ Research and writing on foreign policy, politics and culture by Harry Pye. en-gb Mon, 12 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://dekilpeck.co.uk/we-have-no-idea-how-much-money-is-leaving-britain https://dekilpeck.co.uk/we-have-no-idea-how-much-money-is-leaving-britain Mon, 12 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Essay Bangladesh’s central bank wants to know why the money arriving from Britain jumped $2 billion in one year. We don’t know, and nobody seems to be asking. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/how-to-win-the-young-without-losing-yourself https://dekilpeck.co.uk/how-to-win-the-young-without-losing-yourself Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Essay On Sunday Sweden's Moderates took thirty per cent of first-time voters and took back their place as the kingdom's second-largest party after four years in government. Meanwhile the Conservatives are on a pitiful eight per cent with the same group. The difference isn't, however, what you would assume. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-taliban-express https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-taliban-express Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Landlocked Uzbekistan is planning a railway across Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and through an active war zone. The strange part is this may be exactly what they intended. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-british-case https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-british-case Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Landlocked Britain cannot outspend Brussels, Beijing or the Gulf in Central Asia. That is the beginning of the argument for engagement rather than the end of it, but only if the offer is built around what Britain actually has. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-west-has-a-central-asia-problem https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-west-has-a-central-asia-problem Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Landlocked For years, Western governments have agreed that Central Asia is strategically important. They have been much less successful at agreeing what they are trying to achieve there. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-geography-of-dependence https://dekilpeck.co.uk/the-geography-of-dependence Sun, 02 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Landlocked Over four days in July, drones hit four tankers at a Russian port, and Kazakhstan started running out of somewhere to put its oil. What happened next explains why a country can criticise its neighbour in public and change almost nothing. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/spain-schengens-trojan-horse https://dekilpeck.co.uk/spain-schengens-trojan-horse Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Essay Madrid spent two years building the largest pull factor in Europe. This week the bill arrived. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/andy-burnham-is-not-the-cure-for-versailles-syndrome https://dekilpeck.co.uk/andy-burnham-is-not-the-cure-for-versailles-syndrome Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Essay Britain has changed prime minister six times in a decade and changed nothing that matters. The affliction was never about who was crowned. https://dekilpeck.co.uk/what-the-world-cup-can-teach-the-next-foreign-secretary https://dekilpeck.co.uk/what-the-world-cup-can-teach-the-next-foreign-secretary Fri, 17 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Harry Pye Essay Good teams know the rulebook. Winning teams understand the referee. Britain has spent thirty years being the well-behaved side — and the referee has stepped onto the pitch.