Andrew Michta, 1945
NATO has a decision to make: Either continue with the 2% of GDP pledge and the usual bromides about allied solidarity or get serious about what the alliance needs the most, namely real exercised pluggable military capabilities that by their very nature will ensure that deterrence in Europe holds, regardless of what does or does not happen in Asia. There is a cliché that war is too important to be left to the military, but in this case, it is high time that Europe's politicians start listening to their militaries. Читать дальше...
Bret Stephens, New York Times
Alidad Vassigh, Worldcrunch
Residents near the Caribbean coast of Honduras have been witness to an unlikely, and much welcome, event: fish that seem to arrive from the skies. Or maybe from somewhere else?
Clair MacDougall, World Politics Review
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—The images that circulated on social media following last month's bloody attack on the village of Solhan, in northeastern Burkina Faso, weren't as gory as those that are often shared online after towns have been hit by armed groups. But even in a country where such killings are a near-daily occurrence, there was something about the photographs—showing dozens of bodies wrapped in woven prayer mats and piled into a...
Chloe Cornish, Financial Times
A journey across this small country symbolises its growing sense of crisis
Dmitry Chernobrov, LSE
Humour has a long history in politics and propaganda. Yet with social media, public diplomacy has changed - and short, newsworthy, memorable, easily shareable sarcastic messages have become an increasingly popular way of communicating foreign policy to citizens and waging the war of narratives.
Łukasz Kulesa, Institut Montaigne
For Poland, nuclear weapons are an important factor in international relations which can be neither ignored nor wished away. Poland has been an active member of the NPT and other nonproliferation treaties and regimes, having chaired, for example, the 2018 Session of the Preparatory Committee of the NPT Review Conference. Unsurprisingly, it considers complete nuclear disarmament to be the ultimate goal for the international community. At the same time, it has
Ellen Bork, RealClearWorld
On July 7, U.S President Joe Biden declared "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States" with regard to the situation in Hong Kong. The order extended the same designation made by last July by former U.S. President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The declaration gives the president extensive powers over economic transactions and is often used to impose sanctions. Читать дальше...
Zi-Ann Lum, Politico
OTTAWA — Covid-19 cases are down in Canada and some are interpreting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cross-country travel this week as a surefire sign of an imminent election.
David Merkle, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Although diplomatically recognised by scarcely more than a dozen countries, Taiwan still pursues an active, values-based foreign and development policy. Taipei deliberately counters Beijing's hard power with its "warm power". Whether it is health, the economy or disaster management, creativity and innovation are the common threads that run through Taiwan's approach to development cooperation.
Elise Labott, Foreign Policy
What Haiti needs is state building, not another round of misbegotten aid.
Maryam Gamar, Vox
America and Haiti's complex relationship, explained.
Robert Reich, Guardian
Cybersecurity comes down to which side has access to more information about the other and can utilize it best
Financial Times
Canberra squandered its early Covid victory with a glacial vaccine rollout
Josephine Quinn, New York Review of Books
It has been a barbarian city, a holy city, a woman's city, and a city ruled by Romans, Huns, Goths, Greeks, and bishops.
Peter Suciu, 1945
Russia has continued to pay close attention to the movement of military vessels in the Black Sea. On Thursday, the Russian National Defense Control Center announced that it was tracking the USNS Yuma (T-EPF-8), an expeditionary fast transport deployed to operate with NATO allies and partner nations in the ongoing Exercise Sea Breeze. More than thirty nations from around the world are taking part in the drills, which are scheduled to conclude on Saturday.
Chirayu Thakkar, War on the Rocks
During his 2017 visit to India as British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson failed to achieve a key diplomatic goal. Johnson was unable to convince India's government to restrain its ally Mauritius from launching a diplomatic offensive against Britain over sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago. Among its islands, Johnson and the U.K. government were most concerned about
Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council
This was a clarifying week for global investors—or for anyone concerned about authoritarian capitalism—of just how much the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would be willing to pay to ensure its dominance.
Yan Xuetong, Foreign Affairs
In March, China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, made headlines when he told U.S. officials at a summit in Alaska that they did "not have the qualification . . . to speak to China from a position of strength." Even after years of heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington, the remark seemed unusually harsh, especially coming from a seasoned diplomat. The setting, too, was noteworthy: Yang was speaking at the first high-level diplomatic meeting between China... Читать дальше...
