Russia
Moldova Is Voting Between Europe and Russia. Can a Small Democracy Remain Politically Sovereign When Much Larger Powers Can Influence Its Politics Without Crossing Its Border.
Moldovans are voting today in one of the most consequential parliamentary elections in the country’s recent history. President Maia Sandu’s pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is attempting to retain enough parliamentary power to…
Xi, Putin and Modi Just Stood Together in China. The Image Matters Because the World Is No Longer Dividing Neatly Into an American Bloc and an Anti-American One.
China has spent the past week making a very deliberate argument about the international system it wants to build. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, Xi Jinping hosted leaders including Vladimir Putin and…
Trump Says America Will Help Guarantee Ukraine’s Security. That May Be More Important Than the Territory Ukraine Eventually Loses or Keeps.
The diplomatic atmosphere around Ukraine has changed considerably in only one week. After Donald Trump’s Alaska meeting with Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington on 18 August accompanied by an unusually powerful…
Trump Gave Putin a Red-Carpet Welcome in Alaska. There Is Still No Ceasefire. The Summit Has Changed Who Is Being Pressured to Compromise.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on Friday for nearly three hours in the first US-Russia presidential summit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The symbolism was extraordinary.
NATO Has Agreed to Spend Far More on Defence. Trump Will Call It a Victory. Europe Should Ask Why It Took Doubting America to Make Europe Invest Seriously in Itself.
The NATO summit in The Hague has formalised one of the largest changes in Western defence policy since the end of the Cold War. Alliance members have committed themselves to a new target under which…
Romania Just Chose a Pro-European President Over the Nationalist Right. But Winning 54–46 Is Not the Same Thing as Defeating the Politics That Produced the 46.
Romania has just completed one of the strangest and most consequential presidential elections in modern European politics. Nicușor Dan, the independent, pro-European mayor of Bucharest, has defeated nationalist George Simion in today’s presidential runoff after…
Trump and Zelenskyy’s Oval Office Meeting Collapsed Into an Argument. The Bigger Issue Is What Happens When an Alliance Becomes a Negotiation Between Unequal Partners.
The meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on 28 February was supposed to demonstrate a new economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. Instead, it ended in an extraordinary…
Germany Has Voted. The Centre-Right Won, the Far Right Surged, and the Parties Actually Governing the Country Were Punished.
Germany voted today in an election that may prove more important than an ordinary change of government. Early results put Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU first with roughly 29% of the vote, positioning him to become the…
Trump Says the Ukraine War Must End. The Hard Question Is Whether Ending a War Quickly Can Create the Conditions for the Next One.
The diplomatic structure surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war changed dramatically this week. On 12 February, Donald Trump spoke directly with Vladimir Putin and announced that negotiations to end the war should begin, before speaking separately with…
Bashar al-Assad’s Government Has Collapsed. After Thirteen Years of Civil War, the Hardest Question Is Who Actually Owns the Victory.
Syria has undergone one of the most dramatic political collapses of the twenty-first century. On 8 December, rebel forces entered Damascus and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending more than fifty years of rule by…
BRICS Is Getting Bigger. The More Important Question Is Whether More Members Actually Means More Power.
The BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, concluded this week with leaders from an expanded group attempting to present something increasingly visible in international politics: the institutions created after the Second World War no longer reflect…
BRICS Is Getting Bigger. The More Important Question Is Whether More Members Actually Means More Power.
The BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, concluded this week with leaders from an expanded group attempting to present something increasingly visible in international politics: the institutions created after the Second World War no longer reflect…
