European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered an upbeat assessment in her first annual policy report to the European Parliament this month. Clearly, the agreement this summer on an unprecedented €750 billion recovery fund …
Articles by: "Carl Bildt"
With Belarusians taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers and refusing to be cowed by state violence, it is obvious that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has failed in his bid to steal another election and …
By reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque and holding celebratory prayers there for the cameras, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems keen to divert attention from the fact that his country is entering a …
In an age of escalating tension between the United States and China, will the European Union still have room to manoeuvre in pursuit of its own interests? That will be a key question for EU …
How will the Covid-19 mega-crisis end? I don’t know, and nor does anyone else. So, perhaps it would be more productive to reflect on how it started. By addressing that issue, we might be able …
The first global crisis of the post-American era is here. The fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic will shape the world for years to come. For the better part of a century, the United States has …
An unprecedented threat demands an unprecedented response. Rarely, if ever, have governments had to shift into crisis-management mode as quickly as they have in the past few weeks. So far, the focus has been on …
By any reasonable standard, Australia is a long way away from most other countries. Sydney is closer to the South Pole than it is to Singapore. Direct flights from Washington or Brussels to Canberra remain …
During the recent flare-up between the United States and Iran, US President Donald Trump tweeted that he was prepared to bomb ‘52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago)’. …
Recognising that the European Union is facing a number of vexing challenges on the world stage, Ursula von der Leyen, the new European Commission president, has promised to lead a ‘geopolitical’ commission. Echoing this sentiment, …
Once again, the United States is undergoing the profound drama of presidential impeachment proceedings. But, unlike in the past, this time the implications for the rest of the world could be substantial. Consider the two …
Recent events in Syria have naturally raised two questions: Who lost the country? And where might the international community go from here? The first one is easier to answer. Looking back, Syria has probably been …