Newsletter
Events
Podcast
intrigue outloud

Intrigue Outloud

All the best things about the International Intrigue newsletter, straight to your podcast app of choice.

Listen on
Spotify

Listen on
Apple Podcast

Listen on
RSS

Shop

Search Articles

Suggested:
Top Briefings
Three big escalations for Iran

Welcome to day seven of the Third Gulf War which (per a line via Holly Dagres) is now more of a Gulf War than the first two Gulf Wars. Right now, the three big questions revolve around succession, secession, and suppression (always applaud outstanding alliteration). So let’s start with… Any list of folks denied their […]

Middle East & North Africa 6 March, 2026
Mexico’s top kingpin is dead, unleashing wave of violence

Wild scenes erupted across Mexico yesterday (Sunday) after special forces killed the country’s most-wanted cartel boss, ‘El Mencho’. Who? After two US jail stints and deportations for trafficking in the 80s, El Mencho worked as a cop back in Mexico before joining the Milenio Cartel as a sicario (hitman), until something big happened: Mexico famously […]

The Americas 23 February, 2026
The geopolitics of the Winter Olympics

Italy’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony kicks off in just a few hours, meaning we’ll soon burn our evenings watching snowboarders called ‘Tanner’ and ‘Yui’ pull sick Frontside Double Cork 1080 Lien-to-Melon Reverts. But it also means that, as with any event bringing the world together, geopolitics is now in the air (doing a sick Frontside […]

Geopolitics 6 February, 2026
How ICE extends beyond the US

For a team of ex-diplomats normally more focused on events beyond the US border, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions started as more of a domestic story. Sure, immigration enforcement is inherently international: those with big undocumented diasporas (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) have long been issuing sharper citizen advisories urging their nationals to […]

The Americas 29 January, 2026
Newsletter
Events
Podcast

Intrigue Outloud

All the best things about the International Intrigue newsletter, straight to your podcast app of choice.

Listen on
Spotify

Listen on
Apple Podcast

Listen on
RSS

Shop
Explore On
Top Briefings
Three big escalations for Iran

Welcome to day seven of the Third Gulf War which (per a line via Holly Dagres) is now more of a Gulf War than the first two Gulf Wars. Right now, the three big questions revolve around succession, secession, and suppression (always applaud outstanding alliteration). So let’s start with… Any list of folks denied their […]

Middle East & North Africa 6 March, 2026
Mexico’s top kingpin is dead, unleashing wave of violence

Wild scenes erupted across Mexico yesterday (Sunday) after special forces killed the country’s most-wanted cartel boss, ‘El Mencho’. Who? After two US jail stints and deportations for trafficking in the 80s, El Mencho worked as a cop back in Mexico before joining the Milenio Cartel as a sicario (hitman), until something big happened: Mexico famously […]

The Americas 23 February, 2026
The geopolitics of the Winter Olympics

Italy’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony kicks off in just a few hours, meaning we’ll soon burn our evenings watching snowboarders called ‘Tanner’ and ‘Yui’ pull sick Frontside Double Cork 1080 Lien-to-Melon Reverts. But it also means that, as with any event bringing the world together, geopolitics is now in the air (doing a sick Frontside […]

Geopolitics 6 February, 2026
How ICE extends beyond the US

For a team of ex-diplomats normally more focused on events beyond the US border, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions started as more of a domestic story. Sure, immigration enforcement is inherently international: those with big undocumented diasporas (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) have long been issuing sharper citizen advisories urging their nationals to […]

The Americas 29 January, 2026

Diplomat salary report – 2024

Nobody gets into diplomacy for the money. At least, they shouldn’t. Or at least, we didn’t.

Most pursue a career in diplomacy because they want to serve their country, see the world, and do meaningful work. And you can’t put a price on that, right? Wrong. We’ve just compiled the first-ever comparison of diplomat salaries across the G20.

Why? Mostly for the LoLs. But also, the world is getting a little crazy, so it’s worth asking the question: are our diplomatic services still attracting and retaining the best talent, to help us avert disaster? Let’s dig right in. The report is free to read here!

Published by

Jeremy

Related Topics
Latest Author Articles
Khamenei gone: six big questions from the US-Israel bombing of Iran

In the end, maybe the surprise came not in the attack, but the details, whether… The result? Israel’s opening strike alone wiped out a veritable LinkedIn of names: not just the supreme leader (Khamenei), but also his revolutionary guard boss (Pakpour), defence minister (Nasirzadeh), military chief of staff (Mousavi), and later Ahmadinejad (of “Israel is […]

2 March, 2026
No Thumbnail
Five lines from Trump’s State of the Union address

President Trump just broke the record for the modern era’s longest State of the Union address, beating Clinton’s 88-minute valedictory with a 108-minute victory lap targeting this year’s critical mid-term elections. Focusing more on hip-pocket issues like rent and eggs, and vote-winning wedges like crime and immigration, he still devoted a relatively high ~30% of […]

25 February, 2026
No Thumbnail
Mexico’s top kingpin is dead, unleashing wave of violence

Wild scenes erupted across Mexico yesterday (Sunday) after special forces killed the country’s most-wanted cartel boss, ‘El Mencho’. Who? After two US jail stints and deportations for trafficking in the 80s, El Mencho worked as a cop back in Mexico before joining the Milenio Cartel as a sicario (hitman), until something big happened: Mexico famously […]

23 February, 2026
Why world leaders think the world is “under destruction”

Gone are the days when big thinktank events like the Munich Security Conference (MSC) were the exclusive preserve of tweed-clad IR nerds arguing about great power theory. This is 2026, darn it: the MSC’s Wolfgang Ischinger kicked things off Friday rocking Macron’s trademark aviators, before unleashing a weekend of panels and speeches he branded “Under […]

16 February, 2026
No Thumbnail