Politics
Australia Changed Government. The More Interesting Change May Be Who Its Wealthiest Voters Abandoned.
Anthony Albanese was sworn in as prime minister on Monday after the Labor Party defeated Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National Coalition, ending almost nine years of conservative government. Only hours later, Albanese flew to Tokyo for a…
Finland and Sweden Want to Join NATO. Turkey Has Just Reminded Everyone That Alliances Are Not Democracies.
Only a few months ago, that would have seemed almost unimaginable. Both countries had spent decades outside the alliance, maintaining military non-alignment while cooperating closely with Western institutions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed that calculation…
Russia Wanted Less NATO Near Its Borders. Finland Has Just Decided to Join It.
For years, one of Vladimir Putin’s most persistent complaints has been that NATO expanded too far eastwards and too close to Russia. Russian officials have repeatedly described the alliance’s enlargement as a threat to Russian…
Sinn Féin Just Became Northern Ireland’s Largest Party. That Does Not Mean Ireland Is About to Reunify.
For the first time since Northern Ireland was created a century ago, an Irish nationalist party has won the largest number of seats in its devolved legislature. Sinn Féin emerged from Thursday’s Assembly election with…
Slovenia Just Gave a Party That Barely Existed a Landslide. Is That Democratic Renewal or Political Instability?
Last week I wrote that France’s old party system had largely disappeared even though its constitution and electoral institutions remained intact. This week, another European election has produced an even more striking example of how…
Macron Has Won Again. That Does Not Mean France Has Chosen Macronism.
He defeated Marine Le Pen tonight with 58.55% of valid votes against 41.45%, securing a second five-year term and becoming the first French president in two decades to win re-election while still governing. On the…
France Still Has the Same Democracy. It No Longer Has the Same Political System.
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face each other in the second round of the presidential election on 24 April, repeating the runoff of 2017. Macron finished first with 27.85% of the vote and…
Imran Khan Has Been Removed. Pakistan’s Institutions May Have Just Passed a Harder Test.
Shortly after midnight, Pakistan’s National Assembly voted 174–0 in favour of the no-confidence motion against him after members of Khan’s party largely left the chamber. He becomes the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to…
Imran Khan May Lose Power. The More Important Question Is Whether Pakistan’s Institutions Can Win.
Pakistan has spent the last week approaching what should, in principle, be a fairly ordinary event in a parliamentary democracy: a prime minister may no longer possess the confidence of parliament. The reality has become…
Myanmar’s Military Says It Will Not Negotiate. That May Be the Problem.
Myanmar’s military marked Armed Forces Day today with a parade in Naypyitaw and a message that was much more politically important than the ceremony itself. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the military coup…
Hong Kong’s Zero-COVID Strategy Worked. Then the Virus Changed.
For most of the pandemic, Hong Kong appeared to have accomplished something many Western countries could not. Through strict border controls, quarantine, contact tracing, isolation and aggressive restrictions whenever cases appeared, the city kept COVID…
Europe Thought Trading With Russia Would Make War Less Likely. Now Trade Is Part of the War.
For years, one of the strongest arguments for economic interdependence was that countries which trade extensively with one another become less likely to fight. War is expensive when your factories depend on somebody else’s inputs,…
