EU, Understanding US-China Concerns

The US must concentrate on China and Asia because it’s the fastest rising challenge to the United States and the present world order, and because the Asia-Pacific is home to 60% of the global population and 70% of global economic growth. Therefore, US President Donald Trump is right to seek peace with Russia and some […]

US-Prussia against neo-Austria-Hungarian Empire?

The upcoming German political elections should aim to recover past legacies and forge a special relationship with London to counter an Austrian-Hungarian trend and mitigate a dangerous rift with the US. The American peace talks with Russia on Ukraine shouldn’t become a fissure in transatlantic ties, and the burden of mending them rests with the […]

A Russian Roulette Peace

It’s a deadlock. Moscow has little or no incentive to stop its war in Ukraine, nor may Beijing. The EU should seek a clear victory or face the reality of falling under Russian influence or paying dearly for the war, but it won’t be easy. American President Donald Trump may have a wild card in […]

Europe-China, Matters of Sense and Sensibility

This year, 2024, may mark a significant shift in the relationship between the European Union (EU) and China. The February 2022 shock of China’s support for Russia against Ukraine was compounded by the potentially even greater shock of China’s stance on Israel and its support for Iran in the Middle East. This has created a […]

Post-Syria New Domino Effect to China

A decade after the Syrian Jasmine Revolution’s unsuccessful struggle against Assad, the same revolutionaries defeated him in a week. What made the difference? Previously, Russian and Iranian military support propped up the regime. Now, those old allies are preoccupied elsewhere, depleted of their forces, and unable to provide the blood transfusions that once kept the […]

Russian Hybrid Trap for China?

We seem to be facing a new style of hybrid military escalation. In February 2022, China believed Russia would easily win over Ukraine and cautiously supported it, thereby widening its rift with the US and creating a new fracture with the European Union. However, Russia failed to deliver, and the war remains unresolved. In 2023, […]

Russia pivots east

Russian culture and history has long embraced a hybrid self-image: a western and an eastern, orientations sometimes compatible but more often in conflict. Geographically too, it is one-third in Europe, two-thirds in Asia. In 1703 Peter the Great built St. Petersburg (named for the apostle, later for the tsar), a city on the Baltic Sea […]