Abbreviations are expanded on first use in every briefing. Dotted chips in play open these notes. Scenario modules add specialised entries on top of this list.
- Fiduciary duty
- A legal duty to act in the best financial interests of those whose assets you manage.
- For an asset manager, fiduciary duty generally means seeking long-term economic value for clients and funds—not the manager’s own political preferences, and not a public-policy goal unless the client mandate says so. It is why BlackRock’s public letters and its voting record can diverge, and why using one client’s cash to rescue another product would be a breach.
- AUM
- Assets under management — the market value of client money an asset manager invests.
- AUM is not the firm’s own money. BlackRock’s 2026 chairman’s letter cited about $14 trillion in AUM. Scale creates market-structure influence (index weights, bond-ETF liquidity) without creating a central-bank balance sheet.
- ETF
- Exchange-traded fund — a fund whose shares trade on an exchange throughout the day.
- Unlike a traditional mutual fund, an ETF can trade at a premium or discount to the value of its holdings (NAV). In March 2020, some corporate-bond ETFs traded at deep discounts, which looked like fire sales even when the underlying bonds were hard to trade.
- NAV
- Net asset value — the per-share value of a fund’s underlying holdings.
- When ETF market prices diverge from NAV, authorized participants normally arbitrage the gap. In a liquidity crisis that mechanism can stall, which is why policymakers briefly treated bond ETFs as a pressure valve for credit markets.
- Index fund
- A fund that tracks a published market index rather than picking winners.
- Index (or ‘passive’) funds generally cannot become forced sellers of a single name the way an active manager can; they sell when investors redeem the fund. Their stewardship votes, however, are still discretionary policy choices of the manager.
- Stewardship
- How asset managers vote and engage at companies they hold for clients.
- BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS) publishes voting guidelines and engages boards. From 2024–2026 BIS shifted toward a financial-materiality frame and away from broad environmental, social, and governance (ESG) slogans. That is a fiduciary argument, not a claim that climate risk is irrelevant.
- ESG
- Environmental, social, and governance — a contested label for non-financial factors in investing.
- ESG began as a risk-and-disclosure shorthand. By the early 2020s it had become a political brand in the United States (state anti-ESG laws; European disclosure mandates). Larry Fink publicly distanced BlackRock from the acronym while keeping climate as a financially material topic for some clients.
- Section 13(3)
- Emergency lending authority in the Federal Reserve Act for ‘unusual and exigent’ circumstances.
- Section 13(3) lets the Fed, with Treasury approval, lend to a broad set of borrowers in a crisis. The 2020 Primary and Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facilities were 13(3) programs, not ordinary monetary policy.
- SPV
- Special-purpose vehicle — a legal entity created to hold assets for a defined program.
- The New York Fed financed Corporate Credit Facilities LLC to buy bonds and ETFs. Treasury took equity in the SPV so credit risk sat first with fiscal authorities, not the Fed’s own capital.
- Information barrier
- Internal rules meant to stop confidential knowledge from leaking across a firm.
- Also called a Chinese wall. In 2020 BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory staff working for the Fed were to be segregated from trading desks. Critics noted that senior executives can sit ‘atop’ such walls and that cooling-off periods were short.
- MNPI
- Material non-public information — confidential facts that could move a market price.
- Knowing what the Fed will buy, and when, is MNPI. A private firm that possesses it must restrict trading, communications, and personnel movement or it creates insider-trading and political risk.
- NAC
- North Atlantic Council — NATO’s principal political decision-making body.
- Every Ally has a seat. The Secretary General chairs but does not vote a majority. Decisions are taken by consensus: no Ally objects. The Council can meet at ambassador, ministerial, or summit level.
- Article 4
- North Atlantic Treaty clause requiring consultation when an Ally’s security is threatened.
- Article 4 is not a war trigger. It is the formal consultation mechanism. It has been invoked over Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Poland, among others. It is the honest legal home for a Hormuz or Iran discussion that is not an armed attack on NATO territory.
- Article 5
- NATO’s collective-defence clause: an armed attack on one Ally is an attack on all.
- Article 5 applies to armed attack on a Party in Europe or North America (with specified Atlantic islands). It does not automatically send troops: each Ally takes ‘such action as it deems necessary.’ It has been invoked once, after 11 September 2001. Article 6 draws the map. The Strait of Hormuz sits outside it.
- Article 6
- North Atlantic Treaty clause that sets the geographic area for Articles 5 and 4.
- The area is Europe, North America, and islands under a Party’s jurisdiction in the North Atlantic north of the Tropic of Cancer, plus occupying forces in Europe. Hormuz, the Gulf, and Iran sit outside that map. Allies may still act nationally.
- SACEUR
- Supreme Allied Commander Europe — NATO’s top operational military commander.
- SACEUR heads Allied Command Operations, is a U.S. flag officer, and may plan and request forces only as authorised by the North Atlantic Council and directed by the Military Committee. The Secretary General does not command SACEUR’s troops.
- Consensus
- NATO’s decision rule: a decision stands only if no Ally objects.
- Consensus is not a recorded unanimous vote. Silence equals assent. One Ally can block a communique, a mission, or a Secretary General’s attempt to commit ‘NATO as such.’ Coalitions of the willing exist precisely because of this rule.
- Out-of-area
- Operations or geography beyond NATO’s North Atlantic Treaty territory.
- Hormuz, the Gulf, and Iran are out-of-area. Allies may still act nationally, in EU formats, or in ad hoc coalitions. The Secretary General can encourage that; he cannot re-badge it as a NATO operation without the Council.
- QMV
- Qualified majority voting — the Council of the EU’s default voting rule.
- Usually 55% of member states (15 of 27) representing at least 65% of EU population. A blocking minority needs at least four states. Unanimity still applies to taxation, some foreign policy, and some fiscal instruments. Commission state-aid decisions are not Council votes at all.
- TFEU
- Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union — the EU’s operational constitution.
- Article 107 TFEU generally prohibits state aid that distorts competition, with listed exceptions. Article 194 covers energy. Exclusive Commission competences (competition, trade) are where the President’s legal leverage is greatest.
- State aid
- Government support that favours certain firms or sectors and may distort the single market.
- Member States must usually notify aid and wait for Commission approval. In crises the Commission can publish a temporary framework stating in advance what it will treat as compatible—speeding national schemes while trying to stop a subsidy race.
- College
- The College of Commissioners — the Commission’s political cabinet of 27, one per member state.
- The President assigns portfolios and may request a resignation, but the College decides collectively. A President who overrides the Competition Commissioner on a major aid framework spends political capital inside the house.
- REPowerEU
- The 2022 EU plan to cut Russian fossil-fuel dependence and accelerate clean energy.
- REPowerEU mixed demand reduction, diversification (including liquefied natural gas), and faster renewables. The 2026 Middle East price shock hit a Union that claimed no immediate shortage but still imported fossil fuels whose prices are set globally.
- METSAF
- Middle East Crisis Temporary State Aid Framework — adopted 29 April 2026, in force until 31 December 2026.
- METSAF lets Member States compensate extra fuel and fertiliser costs in agriculture, fisheries, and listed transport, and temporarily raises CISAF section 4.5 electricity-price relief from 50% to 70% for eligible energy-intensive consumption. It is soft law under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU: an envelope for national schemes, not a Union chequebook.
- NEC
- National Escape Clause — EU fiscal-surveillance flexibility, first used for defence spending.
- The clause relaxes how national deficits are assessed; it does not print money. The Spring Package of 3 June 2026 floated extending the defence NEC to energy-security measures. Commission Notice C/2026/4514 of 18 August 2026 is the guidance: measures decided after 28 February 2026; 0.3% of GDP a year and 0.6% cumulative inside the 1.5% cap; Council approval required. Fossil-fuel tax cuts and bill-relief subsidies sit outside that flexibility.
- HUMINT
- Human intelligence — information from people, as a category of collection.
- In this platform HUMINT is discussed only as a strategic resource choice (where a service puts effort, how it is overseen). It is not a lesson in recruiting, covering, or running sources.
- SIGINT
- Signals intelligence — information from electronic communications and related signals, as a category.
- Treated here as a budget-and-priority category that competes with human collection and open sources. No methods, targets, or tooling are taught.
- Aman
- Israeli military intelligence directorate (Agaf HaModi'in).
- Aman serves the Israel Defense Forces. Mossad is a civilian foreign-intelligence service under the Prime Minister. Turf fights over Iran, Lebanon, and ‘who briefs the cabinet’ are a recurring civil–military issue.
- Political end-state
- The condition political leaders want to exist when military or covert pressure stops.
- Intelligence services can destroy capabilities; they cannot define what government should sit in Tehran or what ceasefire is acceptable. Asking for an end-state is how a director keeps covert activity from becoming a substitute for policy.
- Velayat-e faqih
- Guardianship of the Islamic jurist — the doctrine that a senior cleric holds ultimate political authority in the Islamic Republic.
- Articulated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, it is the constitutional basis for the Supreme Leader’s powers over the armed forces, judiciary, state media, and the Guardian Council’s clerical half. Critics of father-to-son succession argue hereditary transfer sits uneasily with a doctrine that claims religious qualification, not bloodline.
- Assembly of Experts
- An elected clerical body that appoints and, in theory, supervises the Supreme Leader.
- In March 2026 it named Mojtaba Khamenei after Ali Khamenei’s death. In practice it has never removed a leader. How much of the March vote was genuine deliberation versus signalling continuity during wartime is not independently observable.
- Guardian Council
- A twelve-member body that vets candidates and reviews legislation for Islamic and constitutional compliance.
- Six clerics are appointed by the Supreme Leader; six jurists are nominated by the judiciary (itself Leader-influenced) and voted by parliament. It is a veto player over who may run, including for the Assembly of Experts.
- IRGC
- Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Iran’s parallel military, economic, and intelligence complex.
- The IRGC answers to the Supreme Leader, not the president. In wartime it can become a collective leadership in fact even if the constitution still names a cleric as commander-in-chief. How far that happened after February 2026 is disputed in open sources.
- Strait of Hormuz
- The choke point between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which a large share of seaborne oil passes.
- A de facto closure, whether by mines, strikes, insurance collapse, or official blockade, transmits instantly into global oil, gas, and fertiliser prices. NATO’s treaty area does not include it. The EU feels the price, not usually a physical shortage of molecules.
- FOMC
- Federal Open Market Committee — the Federal Reserve body that sets the federal funds rate target.
- Twelve voters: the seven Governors (when the Board is full), the New York Fed president, and four other Reserve Bank presidents on a rotating basis. The Chair has one vote and the public megaphone.
- CMC
- Central Military Commission — the body that commands China’s armed forces.
- There is a Party CMC and a state CMC; in practice they are the same people. The usual chairman is also Chinese Communist Party General Secretary. That dual hat is how Party control of the gun is institutionalised.
- NSC
- National Security Council — the U.S. President’s statutory interagency body for national security.
- The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs runs the staff and usually chairs the Principals Committee. The Council does not command forces or appropriate money.
- OPEC+
- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus partner producers, led in practice by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
- Output bargains are voluntary among sovereigns. Compliance varies. Spare capacity — mostly Saudi — is what makes a cut or a hike into a market event.
- Title 50
- The title of the U.S. Code covering intelligence authorities and covert-action findings.
- A presidential finding is required before covert action. Congressional intelligence committees are notified. This platform treats Title 50 as a legal box, not as a methods manual.
- Five Eyes
- The intelligence-sharing grouping of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
- Public attributions and technical advisories are often coordinated in this grouping. A named foreign ministry still has to answer in its own political system.
- systemic-risk exception
- A statutory override of FDIC least-cost resolution so uninsured deposits at a failed bank can be protected.
- Requires recommendations from two-thirds of the FDIC Board and two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board, then a determination by the Treasury Secretary after consulting the President. Losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund are recovered by a special assessment on banks.