C. Karlsson, Worldcrunch
MALMÖ — On one of the final Fridays of 2020, I passed through the Malmö airport customs and underwent that subtle metamorphosis from The Swede to a Swede. This crossing from the definite to the indefinite is familiar to all returning expats, and its downside (deflated exceptionalism) and perks (nostalgia, familiarity) are felt at the first native exchange, and then sporadically with depreciating force — until, if you stay long enough, you're once again part of the herd.
Sophia Besch & Christian Odendahl, CER
The German Christian Democrats (CDU) need a new party leader, after Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK for short, failed to fill Angela Merkel's shoes and resigned in February 2020. This next CDU leader has a good chance of becoming the conservative candidate for chancellor in the German elections this autumn. But winning the election is another matter. Merkel's approval rating still stands at a whopping 84 per cent after almost 16 years in power... Читать дальше...
Gavyn Davies, Financial Times
After years of hostility to cryptocurrencies, central banks will permit them a limited role
S. Kapitonov & T. Umarov, MT
China's commitment to full carbon neutrality by 2060 means that the country needs to reduce the consumption of all fossil fuels, including natural gas. What does that mean for Russia and Central Asia?
Kurt Campbell & Rush Doshi, Foreign Affairs
A Strategy for Restoring Balance and Legitimacy
Hai Hong Nguyen, East Asia Forum
The General Secretary chairs the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption (CSCAC), a mechanism that is placed under direct control of the CPV Politburo, and has the duty to ‘direct, collaborate, inspect and promote anti-corruption efforts nationwide'. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has led the CSCAC for the last eight years but is expected to step down from all positions due to party rules on age and term limits. His
Ayah Aman, Al Monitor
CAIRO — The latest round of negotiations brokered by the African Union on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia has ended with another failure. The dispute resurfaced over the role of experts and observers representing the...
Anchal Vohra, Foreign Policy
The Abraham Accords didn't just seal a wary detente. It cemented Israel's first regional partnership.
Umair Javed, Dawn
MOST journalistic and drawing room analysis of Pakistan's political parties focuses on two aspects — the self-interest of top political leaders, and the local, often transactional, mechanisms required to win electoral constituencies. For the first, political elites can be motivated by a range of things, including the desire for personal enrichment, higher status, protection of their family legacies, and (perhaps rarely) some moral ideal. This motivation plays into the actions... Читать дальше...
Martin Plaut, African Arguments
The war against the TPLF will not be quick or easy, and it already looks to be going badly for Eritrea's president.
Vladimir Socor, Jamestown
The Armenian government has yet to unveil the number of military casualties sustained during the Second Karabakh War (September 27-November 9, 2020). Almost two months after the ceasefire, the search for bodies is still ongoing across the theater; while in parallel, Azerbaijan is repatriating prisoners of war and the remains of fallen soldiers to Armenia. Nikol Pashinian's government in Yerevan seems reluctant for political reasons to disclose the real numbers of soldiers killed and handicapped in this war. Читать дальше...
Fiona Hill, Politico
Since last Wednesday, people have been arguing what to call what happened at the U.S. Capitol - was it a riot? An uprising? An insurrection? I've been public in calling it a coup, but others disagree. Some have said it's not a coup because the U.S. military and other armed groups weren't involved, and some because President Donald Trump didn't invoke his presidential powers in support of the mob that broke into the Capitol. Others point out that no one has claimed or... Читать дальше...
Max Cameron, The Conversation
The storming of the United States Capitol may have failed to disrupt the certification of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but it enacted a script favoured by coup-mongers around the world.
Alex Massie, Spectator
For some months now it has been apparent that the greatest threat to Nicola Sturgeon's position as the uncontested queen of Scottish politics lay within her own movement. Opposition parties could - and did - criticise the Scottish government's record in government but their efforts were as useful as attempting to sack Edinburgh Castle armed with nothing more threatening than a pea-shooter.
Anisa Heritage & Pak Lee, The Diplomat
While its involvement is broadly welcomed in the region, the U.K. must first clarify what its Indo-Pacific presence will entail.
Mark Leonard, Internationale Politik Quarterly
COVID-19 has forced Europeans to confront a twin shock to their worldview, with a philosophical crisis overlaid by a geographical one. The EU now needs to embark on a broad-based effort to ensure its strategic sovereignty.
Katie Bo Williams, Defense One
When the explosions started, Ambassador Bill Roebuck recalls, it wasn't at all clear who was causing them. It was Oct. 15, 2019, and Turkish-backed militias were advancing on a makeshift military base in Syria, a former cement factory about 40 miles from Kobani. President Donald Trump had effectively cleared the path for the invasion into territory previously controlled by the United States and its Kurdish partners....
Shashi Tharoor, Project Syndicate
India's prime minister has an "edifice complex" that has given rise to grand new government buildings, including a planned new parliament. Sadly, the spirit of deliberation and debate that animated the old parliament building risks being left there.
Jimmy Quinn, Nat'l Review
The immediate reaction to their condemnation should be to expose the anti-democratic motives behind it.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Conspiracy theories and political extremism are flourishing across the continent.
Anthony Cordesman, CSIS
The U.S. needs to fundamentally reassess its approach to competing and cooperating with China and Russia. Its present path has tilted more and more towards a poorly structured approach to confrontation focused more on worst case wars than on the broader forms of military and civil competition the U.S. needs to address. It has failed to integrate civil and military competition, to address grey area operations, to look at the global nature of this competition, and to... Читать дальше...
