Articles by: "Mark Leonard"
The Green Deal will make or break Europe

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition to lead a ‘geopolitical commission’ has faced its first big test. European heads of state met last week to discuss her proposed European Green Deal, a sweeping …

The lost promise of 1989

After the collapse of communism in Europe in 1989, many dreamed of building a united and free continent with the European Union at its core. But 30 years later, Europeans have awoken to a new …

Inside Macron’s Russia initiative

French President Emmanuel Macron is one of those leaders who wants to bend the arc of history. Having upended French politics, he has secured positions for his preferred candidates at the head of the European …

Will the Iran conflict break the West?

Before last month’s G7 summit in Biarritz, France, it was a toss-up whether the greater disruption would come from US President Donald Trump or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Yet the attendee who had the …

Can Europe become a global player?

The last five years have not been kind to the European Union’s foreign-policy prospects. A new great-power competition is shunting aside the international rules-based order, and aspects of globalisation—from trade to the internet—are being used …

What the end of Chimerica means for Europe

The escalating rivalry between China and the United States is ushering in a bipolar world. While the past few decades have been defined mostly by cooperation among the world’s leading powers, the next few will …

Is winter coming to the EU?

A popular narrative holds that the European Parliament elections in May will be Act III in the populist drama that began in 2016 with the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum and US President Donald Trump’s election. …

When European politics becomes personal

More often than not, Europe is invoked in abstract terms, such as when politicians argue that European sovereignty is the only path to security in a world dominated by great powers. But as the original …

The accidental transatlanticist

Two Americas were represented by two different vice presidents at the Munich Security Conference this year. Between them, former Vice President Joseph Biden certainly received the warmer reception, but Vice President Mike Pence may have …

How Europe’s populists can win by losing

Will the European Parliament elections this May result in a political revolution? Populist and nationalist parties certainly hope so. They are promising not just to overturn the Brussels establishment, but also to end the free …

The coming Franco-German bust-up

The politics of Brexit is descending into chaos. The European Union is fragmenting into northern, southern, eastern and western tribes. And now the Franco-German marriage at the centre of the European project is in danger …