Martin Kettle, Guardian
The emotional importance of Brexit should never be underestimated. Support for it will always depend more upon feelings than realities. Yet the plain fact is that there has been no material Brexit dividend of any kind in the first two weeks of the break. Perhaps that does not matter. Perhaps a dividend will come. But perhaps the EU has also succeeded in showing there are real costs to leaving.
Sam Greene, The Moscow Times
The opposition leader is setting up a showdown with both Putin and the people. Who will rise to the occasion?
Bobi Wine, Foreign Affairs
Now It Must Stand With Those Struggling Against Tyranny
Nick Tyrone, Spectator
Tony Blair has made a tentative return to the heart of British politics by offering Matt Hancock strategic advice on the vaccine rollout. But does the former prime minister's ambition stretch further than this? More than a decade after leaving office, Blair is said to keen on a 'De Gaulle style comeback'. For Blair's critics, it's an apt comparison. De Gaulle was the so-called 'father of Europe', who led Free France during the war...
Fred Kagan, The Hill
America remains exceptional, despite the horrific events of last week. It has been a federal republic in its current form for more than 230 years. During that time, we have faced at least two insurgencies, namely the Whiskey Rebellion and the Civil War, which were put down. We have had coup attempts, going back to the Newburgh Conspiracy, that have all failed. We have had presidents assassinated and contested elections.
Clyde Prestowitz, RealClearWorld
President-elect Joe Biden says he wants to face the China challenge squarely and alongside our allies. Beijing has offered Biden a golden opportunity to act immediately on his stated desire, as China is now illegally boycotting imports of Australian wine, coal, and other products.
James Acton, Foreign Policy
Why any new agreement would likely be worse than resuscitating the existing deal.
Guy Chazan, Financial Times
It is a Friday evening in Berlin and three middle-aged, dark-suited men are setting out their vision for the future of Germany — the last debate in a withering 10-month campaign for the leadership of the country's most powerful political party.
Joshua Kurlantzick, Japan Times
Over the past 15 years, democracy across Asia has regressed. Although the region still has strong democracies like South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, many other leading Asian democracies and countries with democratic potential have slid backwards, turning into near-autocracies or outright authoritarian states. While Thailand had been one of the freest states in Asia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it has suffered two military coups in the past decade and now... Читать дальше...
Stephen Orlins, SCMP
From visas to tech bans, Biden should undo Trump's needlessly confrontational damage - on condition that China takes equivalent steps back
Carlyle Thayer, East Asia Forum
Key developments in the South China Sea in 2020 were shaped by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, international lawfare, and maritime security.
Andre Sapir, Bruegel
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed between the European Union and the United Kingdom goes against six decades of UK efforts to avoid being economically disadvantaged in Europe. Tracking the evolution of the EU-UK relationship over the last 60 years can help in understanding this.
Maria Chaplia, Kyiv Post
Ukraine's greatest failure as a country is a lack of vision. Where have we come from and where are we heading? What future do we want, and what role should the state play in it? From building roads to reforming the healthcare and justice systems and, above all, fighting corruption, our shared efforts to build a better country have been woefully fragmented and incomplete. One doesn't become successful without having at least a vague notion of what success is.
Masha Borodacheva, Calvert Journal
In southwestern Russia, a desert is growing. Since the 1970s, large swathes of land have been swallowed by sand, mostly in the region of Kalmykia, where St Petersburg-based photographer Sergey Nazarov travelled in 2017 to capture the region's shifting landscape.
Neville Teller, Jerusalem Post
In this new era of Israeli-Arab normalization, Israel has an even more direct interest than it always had in the outcome of the decades-long civil conflict in Yemen. Two of the main players on the ground are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is an original signatory of the Abraham Accords and, if the grapevine is to be believed, Saudi Arabia is an imminent prospect.
M. Young, The National
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Arab world was dominated by what became known as the "politics of axes," in which regional dynamics were driven by the rivalries among different alignments of states. As "pax americana" in the Middle East has come to a halting end, the region is returning to a somewhat similar situation, in which the ultimate outcome may possibly bode well for the Arab states.
