Economics
Germany Is Preparing to Borrow Hundreds of Billions for Defence and Infrastructure. The Bigger Change Is That Europe’s Largest Economy Has Decided Fiscal Restraint Can Become a Security Risk.
Germany has approved one of the largest changes to its fiscal architecture since reunification. On 21 March, the Bundesrat approved constitutional changes previously passed by the Bundestag that will loosen Germany’s famous debt brake for…
Trump Has Ordered Major Strikes on Yemen’s Houthis. The Problem Is That Destroying Missiles Is Easier Than Destroying the Incentive to Keep Firing Them.
Donald Trump ordered a major new American military campaign against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on 15 March, after the Iran-aligned movement threatened to resume attacks on shipping connected to Israel in response to restrictions on…
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…
Trump Says America Could “Take Over” Gaza. The Proposal Reveals a Larger Problem: Reconstruction Is Easy to Discuss When the People Living There Are Treated as Variables Rather Than Political Actors.
Donald Trump produced one of the most extraordinary foreign-policy proposals of his presidency this week. Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 4 February, Trump said the United States could…
Trump Has Started a Trade War With America’s Closest Trading Partners. The Question Is Whether Tariffs Create Leverage Faster Than They Create Costs.
Donald Trump has begun implementing one of the central promises of his second presidential campaign. On 1 February, he ordered a 25% tariff on most imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff…
Los Angeles Is Burning. The Hardest Climate Question Is No Longer Whether Extreme Events Will Happen, but Who Pays When Risk Becomes Uninsurable.
Los Angeles is experiencing one of the most destructive wildfire disasters in its history. Fires that erupted on 7 January have swept through communities including Pacific Palisades and Altadena, killing at least sixteen people by…
2024 Was the Year Voters Punished Governments. 2025 May Be the Year We Find Out Whether the Alternatives Can Govern Better.
The first week of 2025 begins after an extraordinary year of political turnover. Donald Trump is preparing to return to the White House, Labour governs Britain with a huge parliamentary majority, France has lost the…
Jimmy Carter Has Died at 100. His Life Is a Reminder That Losing an Election Does Not Have to Be the End of Political Relevance.
Former US President Jimmy Carter died today at his home in Plains, Georgia, aged 100, making him the longest-lived president in American history. Carter served only one term, from 1977 to 1981, and left office…
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…
Georgia’s Government Has Suspended Its EU Bid. The Protests Show That Foreign Policy Can Become a Question of National Identity.
Georgia has returned to the centre of the struggle over Europe’s political boundaries. On 28 November, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that his government would suspend efforts to begin European Union accession negotiations until 2028,…
