The Sage Institute.
The Sage Institute.
A visual guide to the world’s diplomatic relationships.
Sphere is a research initiative to map the evolving landscape of global diplomacy by visually showing which countries are aligned and which are at odds. The result will be a living, public resource for tracking global affairs.
How it’s built
A student who already studies the country, often at the graduate level, owns its portfolio, mentored by a specialist from our Expert Community. Students gain real-world experience in the research behind diplomacy, journalism, and policy.
Are you a student? Get involvedThe expert guides the student throughout and gives final approval on every classification.
Visitors will also be able to classify relationships on a crowdsourced map. Where the public’s view differs from the expert’s, we take a second look.
We organize bilateral relations along a continuum represented by the temperature gauge:
Countries that share broadly cooperative relations. These ties may be anchored in formal alliances, strategic partnerships, or shaped by a shared history, similar values, or pragmatic collaboration. Aligned countries can operate with strong, mutual commitments or retain strategic autonomy. Even if they diverge on certain issues, the tone remains friendly, the ties resilient, and the stakes often too high to risk real rupture. Their overall posture is one of trust, mutual respect, and diplomatic goodwill.
Countries whose relations are neither close nor openly hostile but shaped by mistrust, strategic divergence, or unresolved tensions. While cooperation may occur where interests align, the relationship remains constrained by caution, inconsistency, or lingering grievances. The overall posture is functional but fragile, reflecting wariness and a lack of trust.
Countries whose relations are rooted in deep mistrust, entrenched rivalry, or outright hostility. They may be locked in open conflict, have severed diplomatic ties, or pursue diametrically opposed aims across military, economic, or ideological spheres. Even where formal ties remain, communication is limited, cooperation rare, and strategic outlooks fundamentally opposed. While the intensity of hostility may vary, the overall posture is one of enduring antagonism and persistent risk of escalation.
Negligible Ties
The two states have no formal diplomatic relationship or maintain only minimal bilateral engagement with little sustained political, economic, security, or strategic interaction. This reflects a neutral absence of significant ties, often due to limited strategic interest or geographic or political distance.
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Aligned
Strained or Wary
Adversarial
Negligible Ties