Claudia Major & Christian Mölling, IP Quarterly
For more than four years the EU has been debating its place in the world, and its relation to the United States, based on changing narratives. It started with “strategic autonomy.” Although anchored in EU documents, this term turned toxic as Central Europeans spotted a French plot that would drag them away from the United States and its security guarantees. Following this, the debate switched to “European sovereignty.” This new bumper sticker... Читать дальше...
James Forsyth, Times of London
Agreement isn’t certain but failure of the talks would cause such acrimony that both sides are willing to compromise
Rubén Chababo, Worldcrunch
BUENOS AIRES — A new wave of repression has been unleashed in Cuba and, once again, its victims are the San Isidro artists' collective who have been denouncing the communist regime's arbitrary acts and power abuse for years. This comes at a time of censorship and harassment of all thinking on the island that does not fit in with what is accepted and regulated by the state bureaucracy.
Philip Stephens, Financial Times
Beijing’s great power politics are a bigger threat to the EU than to the US
Doug Bandow, FP
The Biden administration must prepare to stand up for protesters.
Juliet Skingsley, Chatham House
The announcement of a significant increase in the defence budget marks a new era in how the UK military will operate – but also brings into sharp focus a much-needed examination of exactly how the military should operate under international law.
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Thomas Joscelyn, The Dispatch
ISIS isn't dead, al-Qaeda is not a ‘shadow of its former self,’ and the Taliban is not our counterterrorism partner.
Shay Khatiri, The Bulwark
The killings—believed to be Israeli operations—suggest what U.S. allies feel they have to do when the U.S. won’t confront Iran.
Josh Rogin, Washington Post
The tectonic plates of the military balance in Asia are shifting underneath our feet. It’s happening slowly and inexorably, but over time the magnitude of the change is becoming vividly apparent. As the United States prepares to change its leadership, China’s military advancement and expansion are now a problem too glaring to ignore.
Russia Matters
In an article published Feb. 18, 2020, by the New York Times, Vladislav Inozemtsev, the director of the Center for Post-Industrial Studies in Moscow, was quoted as saying that “nobody wants to invest” in the Russian economy. He explained that “nobody believes the economic situation will be better tomorrow than it is today.” Inozemtsev’s comments imply that while the Kremlin has
Abhijnan Rej, The Diplomat
While the idea of mining the moon may look attractive, neither China nor anybody else is quite there yet.
Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate
There are many legitimate concerns about China’s behavior, including its defiance of international law in the South China Sea, domestic violations of human rights, and discriminatory and overprotective trade and industrial policies. But Australia’s huge economic dependence on China obliges it to get along with its larger neighbor.
Eli Epstein & Mike Holtzman, J-Post
While embracing a singular Trump achievement may not play well with Mr. Biden’s Democratic base, it is nonetheless good for the country.
Tom McTague, The Atlantic
Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg
The third rail of Indian politics has always been agriculture. While the economy has been partly liberalized since opening up to the world in 1991, the process has largely bypassed the three-fifths of Indians who depend for their livelihoods, directly or indirectly, on farming. In September, the government finally introduced a much-needed set of changes to how agriculture is organized and how produce is sold in India. Now tens of thousands of agitated farmers have marched upon New Delhi in protest. Читать дальше...
Tevi Troy, Mosaic
ome next month, in January 2021, the Israeli politician Gilad Erdan will be joining a long and storied list of characters, and heroes, who have had the job as Israel’s top representative in Washington. As Erdan both prepares for and settles into his new positions—he has already begun serving as Israel’s ambassador to the UN—it might behoove him, and the rest of us, to learn about his predecessors, and their experiences representing the Jewish state in the American capital.
Doug Bandow, The American Conservative
Be very afraid: Joe Biden plans to set the world right. Expect a return to the past. Not so much to Barack Obama, but to Bill Clinton. Biden says America is back, which likely means as sanctimonious nanny wielding a metaphorical AK-47 to enforce its wishes. The ride will be dramatically different, and potentially much worse, than the experience over the last four years.
Ash Jain & Alex Pascal, National Interest
2021 will be a pivotal year for international order as the world begins to emerge from a devastating pandemic and a contentious period of nationalism and populism stoked and symbolized by Donald Trump. But rather than emerging dominant after a period of great struggle, as...
Alex Berezow, Geopolitical Futures
Indeed, few societies are willing to control the virus at the cost of ripping the social fabric. The coronavirus has revealed an immense tension between the economic and social pillars of our society. Governments have no good options. Some will be tempted to reimpose lockdowns, justifying them with the claim that they will be eased as soon as a vaccine is available. But this is a false reassurance. For citizens of rich countries, widespread vaccination is still months away. Читать дальше...
Gaspard Koenig, Worldcrunch
Gaspard Koenig has returned after several months spent traveling across Europe on horseback. The journey included a conscious effort to limit his exposure to current events, relying only on the local newspapers and conversations.
