Kazakhstan at a Critical Minerals Crossroads: Tungsten and Middle Power Resource Sovereignty
February 28th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a report on how Kazakhstan finds itself at the intersection of two structural trends: the militarization of the global economy and the technological rivalry between the United States and China: Amid the global race for critical minerals and rising defense spending, Kazakhstan is re-emerging as a significant player in the tungsten sector. […]
Read more »The Billionaire Brothers Betting on Syria’s Reconstruction
February 20th, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a look at Qatar’s Al-Khayyat brothers who are are now poised to play a leading role in rebuilding their homeland: In 2017, during the Saudi-led embargo of Qatar, local dairy company Baladna famously airlifted in thousands of cows to help guarantee milk supplies and food security in Doha. Behind the unorthodox move was the Al-Khayyat family, naturalized […]
Read more »‘Big Beautiful Belt’ of US-Aligned States Takes Form Across Eurasia
February 18th, 2026
Via Nikkei Asia, a look at the growing number of middle powers seeking closer ties to Trump: A belt of U.S.-aligned states is taking shape across Eurasia, and President Donald Trump will bring many of its members to Washington on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. A bulk of the board’s […]
Read more »Electric Vehicle Sales Boom as Ethiopia Bans Fossil-Fuel Car Imports
February 18th, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a look at how Ethiopia is making use of cheap hydropower and Chinese electric vehicles to ditch the internal combustion engine: Bethelhem Eshetie gave up driving her taxi two years ago. The rising cost of gas and the spare parts needed to keep her old car on the road meant that she couldn’t […]
Read more »How Long Can Kyrgyzstan’s Economic Boom Keep Booming?
February 17th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a look at how sanctions scrutiny and overheating risks are threatening one of the few winners from the Russia-Ukraine war: When the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020, entrepreneur Amantur Asanaliev doubted whether his newly formed logistics company, TLK Supplier, would survive, let alone thrive. Sure enough, the pandemic quickly devastated many Kyrgyz businesses […]
Read more »The Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway: Still Growing 8 Years Later
February 14th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, an article on how – two years after the handover to local control – the China-built railway is not done transforming the region: After its inauguration on January 10, 2017, in Djibouti City, the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (AADR) – the African continent’s first standard-gauge, electrified, multi-country railway – started its operation in […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.