We all remember the image of the two lonely dictators at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Putin was the only international leader to attend, and he was courted accordingly. In return, he was allowed to take back home with him new trade contracts and the promise of ‘unlimited friendship’. Nevertheless, China cannot have been enthusiastic […]
conflicts
The tragic images of the Russian airstrikes against the Ukrainian cities and the Ukrainian people fleeing their country under the pressure of the invasion shattered the European Unions’ decades-long illusion of uninterrupted peace. The European people seem to have finally awoken to the EU’s rightful geopolitical role and responsibilities. They have welcomed with solidarity the […]
Not for the first time, Europe finds itself in the middle of a fossil gas conflict. Not for the first time, Russia is reducing its supplies and using gas as a political weapon. The Ukraine conflict is threatening to escalate and, with it, the gas crisis. Germany made a mistake and, contrary to what our […]
Calling the situation of the centre-left parties in Central and Eastern Europe ‘difficult’ equals hiding behind a diplomatic langue de bois. In none of the countries of the region, Social Democrats are in government – neither at the helm of a coalition, nor as a partner in one. Sometimes they even failed to enter parliament […]
Ten years ago, after weeks of demonstrations on downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square, President Hosni Mubarak’s government crumbled. The regime that had led Egypt since 1952 was apparently ousted. The upheaval was certainly profound. But to speak, as Western media did, of an ‘Arab Spring’, charging it with improper political meanings, was a glaring mistake. It […]