Why Read: Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of discussing the seismic changes under way in the world with my good friend Sir Richard Dearlove, past chief of MI6 (Her/His Majestys Secret Service), onstage at the FiRe 2026 conference. Specifically, we had the time and freedom from influence to take a cold look at the rather staggering shifts in money, power, and military status over just the last few months. I suspect that our shared discoveries will shock many and perhaps surprise all. mra

The Flow

I should start by noting that just this past week we made the video of the following conversation and all other FiRe 2026 sessions available - first in advance release to SNS members and FiRe attendees and then to the general public. We encourage you to share this full video set freely with your friends and colleagues. (The doors of the FiRe 2026 Photo Gallery are also now open, with offstage shots coming soon.)

Having just watched the video of my conversation with Sir Richard Dearlove, I have now abandoned my prior intent for this issue: to summarize the conversation and bring out its high points. Rather, I think our members will be better served by taking in the conversation itself, which you can do by going here:

The Changing World Order

For those on airplanes or without the time to watch a video, we are presenting here a complete text version, with our highlights, so that you can review this rather amazing conversation offline.

The Changing World Order

Sir Richard Dearlove | Chief (fmr.), MI6 | Co-Host, One Decision

with Mark Anderson | CEO: SNS, Pattern, Future in Review

Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego, June 2, 2026

(Transcribed by TurboScribe, with light SNS edits for clarity and style.)

[Mark Anderson]

Hello, everyone - I am delighted to be here, as we were last year, just a year ago.

[Sir Richard Dearlove]

As we were.

[Anderson]

Exactly; same time and place, with my good friend Sir Richard. Sir Richard, who probably winces every time I call him Richard, but hes such a dear friend of mine that I act like some ugly American and sometimes do that.

[Sir Richard, laughing]

Its better than being called Sir Dearlove, which is completely wrong.

[Anderson]

All right, we wont do that -

I refreshed our conversation recently while we were sitting together, from that last year, and were going to start with the ending of that conversation. At that time, I asked Sir Richard whether or not he saw -- as you probably all know, we invented the term CRINK when the alliance between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea was first emerging. And so we gave it a name: CRINK.

Theres a woman here whos used it in her Forbes writing, I believe, and the Wall Street Journal now uses it. Its a thing. And I asked Sir Richard whether or not he saw that alliance in the same way.

The context here is pretty obvious now, this year. But Iran - here we are, bombing Iran daily because of this issue of whether they have nuclear weapons and/or ICBMs to deliver them. The reason I was really asking Richard about these things was because it struck me that given the CRINK alliance, and what we knew ahead of time that caused us to know that was an alliance - such as Iran shipping missiles to North Korea in cargo ships with flour covering the missiles - was it possible that the sudden step function increases in North Koreas nuclear weapons program and missile programs were directly related to being helped by Iran? And I believe you said its possible.

[Sir Richard, laughing]

I did.

[Anderson]

Okay. I dont want to put words in your mouth.

And then the other follow-on question was: If that was possible, then is it possible that these weapons and these missiles are in some way or other Irans?