Owen Polley, CapX
For almost four years, Irish Europhiles, from Leo Varadkar down, sneered at the British for our supposed insularity, our nationalism and our populism, because we voted for Brexit. The Republic of Ireland, we were told, was an outward-looking, economically successful democracy, while the UK was old and in thrall to its imperial past, with a political system that no longer worked.
Human Rights Watch
(Khartoum) – Sudan’s leaders say that they will cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could mean that former president Omar al-Bashir will finally face justice for grave international crimes in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today. Transferring the five Sudanese under ICC arrest warrants to the court would be a major step toward accountability after years of obstruction and would signal the new transitional government’s commitment to...
Alex Ward, Vox
He’s declining to answer old foreign policy queries and not responding to some new ones.
Yossi Klein Halevi, Times of Israel
In his first months in office, President Trump emboldened the far-right fringe. President Sanders would do the same with the far left
Zhang Jun, SCMP
The epidemic may well reach a turning point in the next two weeks, confining the worst of the economic impact to the first quarter. This, and policy adjustments, should allow China to record economic growth of 5-5.5 per cent for the year, firmly back on track
Peter Kuras, Foreign Policy
The German chancellor’s most likely successor wants to end her way of doing politics.
Maroosha Muzaffar, Ozy
As the most powerful Indian military boss in decades — and potentially ever — Gen. Bipin Rawat’s words carry weight. So when India’s chief of defense staff (CDS) spoke about “deradicalization camps” for Kashmiris at an event in New Delhi, it alarmed not just Kashmiris who have been under a siege since India stripped the...
Derek Scissors, American Enterprise Institute
A politically important trade number was published and largely ignored last week. America’s goods trade deficit with China dropped $74 billion in 2019, a result that will help President Trump’s campaign and may affect future American policy.
Simon Allison, African Arguments
On the African continent, 2019 was, for me, defined not by the stories that got a lot of attention, but by those that did not get the attention they deserved. This is not intended as a criticism of the journalists, both foreign and domestic, who cover this continent, most of them overworked, underpaid and putting in heroic efforts to report on and from environments that are hostile to the media. It is rather a reflection of a world of multiple, competing crises... Читать дальше...
Eamon Delaney, Irish Independent
In the end, there were no big ideas from Fianna Fáil, no overarching vision for Ireland and our society. It was just a sense of entitlement that 'it's our turn'.
Danny Zaken, Al Monitor
What looked on Jan. 28 to be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s greatest achievement — a joyous ceremony at the White House during which President Donald Trump gave the Israeli right the best diplomatic gift of all time — has since turned into an electoral burden. This about-face is due to Netanyahu’s inability to...
Bernard Avishai, New Yorker
Just two weeks after its release, the Trump Administration’s plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace has already been so widely discredited for its one-sidedness and its political deviousness that there is a risk of ignoring its most immediate threat—which is not to the Palestinians but to Jordan. In Israel, the plan, or “Vision,” as the document unveiled at the White House calls it, has been received as an American warrant for the Israeli government to annex West Bank... Читать дальше...
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
The Communist revolution brought to power Mao Zedong. It created a state based on ideology, the belief that what would emerge from the long revolution would be a nation based on communism, and that with that China would experience both a prosperity and community it had never had. But the price that had to be paid to reach that goal would be ruthless oppression and suffering. This was designed both to build communism and expunge the anti-communist habits that were ingrained in the Chinese people. Читать дальше...
Peter Geoghegan, Guardian
After Sinn Féin’s unexpected success commentators rushed in with half-baked conclusions about what it all meant
Ian Acheson, Spectator
Northern Ireland is a hermit kingdom with a mandatory coalition government only recently off its knees. It might as well be Mars for the huge number of the Republic’s voters, especially those under 24, who came out strongly for Sinn Fein. They want good affordable housing and decent infrastructure. An end to endemic rough sleeping and child poverty. And a healthcare system not disfigured by huge waiting lists. Older people baulk at pension reform which could see them working longer before retirement. Читать дальше...
Lee Cohen, The Hill
The United Kingdom now will begin negotiating new, independent trade relationships.
Damir Marusic, The American Interest
Thinking about Brexit as a competition between cosmopolitanism and nationalism within Britain misses a much more important dimension: It’s the European Union that’s in crisis.
