Paul Rogers of OpenDemocracy explains why global defence expenditure is at its highest level since records began. Elsewhere, Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent, Hannah Lucinda Smith, tells us about Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq, the Maldives shifts its allegiance from India to China and we ask why the US is withdrawing troops from Niger. Plus: art and culture news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.