An economic interpretation of history suggests that war is a continuation of economic rivalry in pursuit of the object of desire in economics – economic rent. For the Middle East, competition for control of its vast oil reserves subjected it to the “natural resource curse” of...

The fourth Taiwan Strait crisis has spiked US-China tensions at a parlous moment for the world. Triggered by the brief visit of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, to Taipei and China’s escalation of military exercises around Taiwan (including live fire drills in six...

The emergence of the data-driven economy has profound implications for the role for the state as economic agent, as regulator, and as the agent of power projection internationally to capture global rents. We focus on the role of data as a capital asset, compare the characteristics of data in...

Big data, exploited by ever more powerful AI and machine-learning engines that extract previously unattainable information, is being monetized in various ways and is underpinning the market valuation of today's most valuable corporations. This has made data-generated rents the principal bone of...