European Union
Not (yet?) a European Army
The headline “Armed force of 10,000 to patrol borders” recently featured from the European Union about Frontex is not quite what it appears to be. It does not herald the…
French choreography in the Pacific
French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Australia was a frank success, although some observers were puzzled after he raised the idea of a “Paris–New Delhi–Canberra”…
Sea cables in a thawing Arctic
China has made a significant foray into the Arctic with the creation of a data “silk road”. Strongly supported by a newfound closeness with Russia, preliminary planning of a…
The unending nightmare for Germany’s Social Democrats
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) is having a political nightmare from which it is unable to awake.
Wounded by the experience of four years as junior governing…
Macron’s mission to China
During French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to China, which concluded last week, his choice to gift China's Xi Jinping with a horse was apparently prompted by Xi's words of…
Breakdown in Berlin
Since the beginning of Germany's election campaign a few months ago, Christian Lindner has demanded his role on centre stage. His slightly dishevelled face stared out in black and…
Macron, America and Iran: Searching for a middle way
French President Emmanuel Macron is considering a visit to Tehran in early 2018. Macron would be the first French President to visit Iran since Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1976,…
Populism, nationalism, separatism: The EU’s new, and old, challenge
A brief recapitulation of what has happened in Europe in recent weeks, with Austria first. The parliamentary election will likely bring 31 year-old Sebastian Kurz to power, easily…
German elections: The collapse of consensus
It is unusual for a major party to assume a 'great responsibility' by being relegated to opposition. But this is precisely the situation facing the German Social Democrats (SPD)…
Turkey’s EU accession: A useful fiction
By any measure, the German Chancellor debate between Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz last weekend was a dispiriting, monotonous affair. On irrelevant issue after irrelevant issue,…