Global governance & international security
It doesn’t matter who is president of Russia
02 August 2011
Financial Times
In Moscow, the speculation about Russia’s next president is becoming tedious. Dmitry Medvedev has made it clear he would like to run again, but most people think Vladimir Putin, prime minister, will be the official candidate and win March’s election.
But does it matter whether President Medvedev continues, Mr Putin returns...
But does it matter whether President Medvedev continues, Mr Putin returns...
Stopping the transatlantic rift
26 January 2011
International Herald Tribune
You might call it the Obama paradox: Atlanticists on both sides of the ocean were certain that this president, inaugurated two years ago, would renew the transatlantic alliance.
'West Bank first' approach has failed
04 February 2010
European Voice
The EU must convince the US to abandon a policy whose flawed logic condemns it to failure.
Israel's dark view of the world
13 November 2009
The Guardian
The official explained to Bibi Netanyahu that if there was a peace settlement, extra investment would push Israel's longterm growth rate from 5% a year to 7%. The Israeli prime minister responded that if the country had 5% growth, it did not need peace.
Netanyahu was joking, according to the official...
Netanyahu was joking, according to the official...
Missile strategy must not be seen as a retreat
09 September 2009
Financial Times
There are mounting indications that Barack Obama will soon abandon plans to put missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. These have become one of the main bones of contention between Russia and the west.
Germany owes Afghanistan an explanation
09 September 2009
The Guardian
Finger pointing is the defence of the concerned and the cornered. So it reflects very poorly on Nato that allies are bickering with one another over an attack that killed an unknown number of Afghan civilians last week.
Logic in Europe's military could check spending
16 July 2009
Financial Times
When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object bad things usually happen. And so it will be next year when spending cuts imposed by the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression meet the rising demands of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The UK government may have to cut non-defence...
Europe and Russia's continental rift
13 July 2009
Time Europe
Russia's economy - until recently one of the fastest growing in Europe - is in dire straits. In the first three months of this year, output fell by 10% compared with a year earlier.
The real G20 agenda: From technics to politics
16 March 2009
Open democracy
The efforts of world leaders to find solutions to the economic crisis are intensifying. The last preparatory meeting before the leaders' summit on 2 April 2009 shows what needs to be done, says Katinka Barysch.
The summit of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Twenty (G20) countries took...
The summit of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Twenty (G20) countries took...
Fighting the leaderless jihad
01 March 2009
E!Sharp
The planned closure of the controversial US interrogation centre and prison at Guantánamo Bay should usher in deeper transatlantic cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other common security threats.
Don't undermine free markets
08 October 2008
International Herald Tribune
Commentators and politicians have been falling over themselves to read the last rites to "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism. Anglo-Saxons have undoubtedly been guilty of profligacy and hubris.
Europe and the Georgia-Russia conflict
30 September 2008
Open democracy
The European Union played a key diplomatic role in mediating the Caucasus war. Now it must do more to manage the wider tensions with Russia that have followed. Katinka Barysch offers a policy checklist.
The headlines about the conflict in the Caucasus in August 2008 have been replaced by news about...
The headlines about the conflict in the Caucasus in August 2008 have been replaced by news about...
The new Russia and how to deal with it
18 September 2008
Open democracy
Dmitri Medvedev compares '8/8', the date of Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, with 9/11. The Russian president is right that the war in Georgia, and the way the West reacted, have fundamentally changed the worldview of many Russians.
Conflit russo-géorgien: un nouveau souffle pour l'OTAN
09 September 2008
RIA Novosti
Le conflit entre la Géorgie et la Russie donnera une nouvelle impulsion à l'OTAN, a estimé dans un entretien accordé à RIA Novosti mardi le directeur du Centre britannique pour la Réforme européenne, Charles Grant.
"L'OTAN a été confrontée au problème de son activité à l'issue de la "guerre froide". Certes...
"L'OTAN a été confrontée au problème de son activité à l'issue de la "guerre froide". Certes...
The bear's Achilles heel
15 August 2008
The Guardian
For many American commentators, plucky little Georgia has been the victim of Russian imperialism. The Guardian's Seumas Milne takes an simplistic view: Russia is blameless for a war caused by US "expansion".
Can the west help prevent an all-out war between Russia and Georgia?
08 August 2008
The Guardian
This week, Georgia made a bold gamble: it moved forces into South Ossetia; a province of Georgia that broke free in the early 1990s, in an attempt to re-assert its authority over parts or all of it.
Europe must build a strategic alliance with China
09 June 2008
Financial Times
The shift of power from west to east, as the US-dominated international order becomes multipolar, is evident. But the nature of the emerging system is far from clear. Will it be competitive, based on the assertion of national power, or co-operative, framed by international rules?
Robert Kagan, in his new book...
Robert Kagan, in his new book...
Drinking the Kool-Aid
01 February 2006
Prospect
Was the Iraq adventure doomed to fail or did the US administration mess it up? A new crop of books suggests that the nation-builders of Iraq were fighting the right war in theory but not in practice.
The Iraq war started as a war of ideas. It erupted from the most...
The Iraq war started as a war of ideas. It erupted from the most...
India tilts to the west as the world's new poles emerge
12 January 2006
The Guardian
Nothing is permanent in history, including America's domination of the global economic and political systems. Assuming China and India keep growing at their current rates, the unipolar world of recent years - topped by the US - will be replaced by a multipolar world within a few decades.
Once its "unipolar...
Once its "unipolar...
The geopolitics of 2026
02 January 2006
The Economist
History is traced not is straight lines but in jagged and discontinuous strokes. But what if the future follows a more predictable path?