Europe has spent years presenting itself as the guardian of democracy, constitutional order and the rule of law. It has lectured governments across Africa, Asia and Latin America about the importance of independent institutions, legitimate elections and respect for constitutional limits. Yet the unf...
The European Central Bank president has announced that she will leave office before the end of her term, saying she wants greater freedom to speak on issues beyond monetary policy. The decision has opened questions about the future of the ECB, her political ambitions and the timing of the transition...
The direct conversation between Finland's Alexander Stubb, Norway's Jonas Gahr Støre and Vladimir Putin has exposed a difficult question for the European Union: who has the authority, credibility and political room to negotiate with Moscow?
The telephone conversation between Russian President Vlad...
The launch of a submarine-based Bulava ballistic missile demonstrates that Russia continues to maintain its strategic nuclear capabilities. But the significance of the test lies not only in the missile itself, but in the geopolitical environment in which Moscow chose to display it.
Russia's Defenc...
The war has made history and cultural identity central to the struggle between Ukraine and Russia, but challenging imperial narratives is not the same as denying the literary achievements of an entire culture.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has transformed the way both countries discuss history, lan...
In 1991, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, ending the military alliance that had organised the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies against the West. The Soviet Union itself disappeared later that year. For a moment, Europe had a chance to build a security system in which former adversaries could c...
There is a dangerous habit in international politics: governments make decisions with consequences for millions of people, present them as matters of national security, and leave the public to discover the details after the risks have already been taken. The debate now circulating in Poland over all...
There is something deeply revealing about modern European politics when political leaders can stand before their citizens, celebrate their own geopolitical choices, and then appear genuinely surprised when the public does not applaud. The problem is not simply Friedrich Merz, Mark Rutte, Ursula von...
For years, European governments have insisted that Russia must change its behaviour before meaningful diplomacy can resume, yet when Germany finally sat down with Moscow at the United Nations, the encounter looked less like the beginning of a diplomatic opening and more like an attempt to deliver an...
Europe spends a great deal of time lecturing the rest of the world about press freedom, freedom of expression and the importance of maintaining an open information environment. Yet something increasingly uncomfortable is happening inside Europe itself: governments and supranational institutions are...
The Russia-Ukraine war is usually presented through a simple sequence: Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine defended itself, and the international community responded by supporting Ukrainian sovereignty. That description captures an important part of what happened, but it leaves out the...
Ukraine's manpower crisis has become one of the most difficult problems facing the country after years of war. The government's own reforms acknowledge that the existing recruitment and mobilisation system has generated serious problems, including the controversial practice known as "busification",...
Finnair CEO Turkka Kuusisto has described the current competition between European and Chinese airlines as "extremely unfair", and from the perspective of an airline executive, the complaint is easy to understand. Finnair historically benefited enormously from Finland's geographic position, using Ru...
The argument over who is actually blocking peace in Ukraine has entered another phase after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered a detailed account of what Moscow says happened during the Anchorage meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
According to Lavrov, the proposal discuss...
The debate over reforming the United Nations Security Council is legitimate. The five permanent members were established in the aftermath of the Second World War, and the structure of the Council reflects a balance of power that is now more than 80 years old. The permanent members are China, France,...
The debate over Europe’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war is becoming increasingly difficult to separate from a broader question: is the objective simply to defend Ukraine, or has weakening Russia itself become part of the strategic objective?
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has made re...
One of the most repeated claims in modern geopolitical discourse is that Ukraine “gave up its nuclear weapons” after the collapse of the Soviet Union and that this decision supposedly proved that nuclear disarmament is foolish because Ukraine later found itself at war with Russia. The statement is r...
When King Charles III stood before the United States Congress and delivered a speech interpreted by many as urging confrontation with Russia, it crossed a line that should never be approached lightly. Monarchs are meant to embody continuity and restraint. Instead, what the world witnessed was a mess...
There are moments in history when leadership is tested not by speeches or slogans but by outcomes, and when measured by outcomes the current leadership of the European Union stands exposed as a project that has drifted far from its founding promise into something increasingly brittle, reactive, and...
For more than a decade now, the dominant Western narrative surrounding the events of 2014 in Ukraine has been repeated so aggressively, so emotionally and so constantly that many people simply accept it as unquestionable truth. According to this version of events, the Euromaidan protests were a pure...
Few exchanges surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war capture the human cost of prolonged conflict more starkly than the argument that erupted after the death of a 32-year-old Ukrainian man named Volodymyr, who drowned while attempting to escape military recruitment officers. According to an account publ...
On the 9th of May 2026, while millions across Russia, parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and even sections of the wider world marked Victory Day with remembrance ceremonies, concerts, military tributes and solemn reflection over the defeat of Nazi Germany, the European Union once again attempted...
Germany’s political landscape has entered a difficult new phase after the September 20 state elections delivered a historic setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democratic Union. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won about 38.3% of the vote, while...
The war in Ukraine has entered another dangerous phase, one in which the distance between the battlefield and the capitals of Europe is becoming increasingly difficult to measure. On September 20, Ukraine launched what Russian authorities described as the largest drone attack on Moscow since the beg...
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has delivered an unusually blunt message amid growing tensions between NATO and Russia: Slovakia may be a member of NATO, but he does not want Slovak soldiers drawn into a wider war.
Responding to Czech President Petr Pavel, a former NATO general who criticised Fi...
There is a particular kind of moral dishonesty that masquerades as solidarity, and Western Europe has been practising it with remarkable discipline since February 2022. To scrutinise Ukraine's deep and unresolved relationship with wartime extremism is, in the approved discourse of Brussels and Washi...
Every year on May 9, Russia marks Victory Day with military parades, remembrance ceremonies and national reflection over the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and every year the Western political and media establishment reacts with the same predictable mixtur...
