In a surprising reversal from the Oval Office standoff between Zelensky and Trump and the suspension of US military aid to Ukraine, Kyiv, late on Tuesday, announced its willingness to implement an immediate 30-day ceasefire — provided Moscow agrees to …
Trump has Europe in check
“And are we not guilty of offensive disparagement in calling chess a game? Is it not also a science and an art, hovering between those categories as Muhammad’s coffin hovered between heaven and earth, a unique link between pairs of …
Germany’s soft spot for Russia
Mounted atop a former warehouse in Hamburg’s industrial-era docklands, the billowing form of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall rises above Germany’s second-largest city like an ocean wave. The glass-panelled building crowns a new, forward-looking section of the city, a modern and …
Europe’s nuclear delusion
He’s not even chancellor yet, but Friedrich Merz already wants to revolutionise European security. In a recent interview on German television, he called for a European nuclear umbrella, with the Federal Republic swapping US protection for the backing of Britain …
Trump’s Ukraine power play
“I’m working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions …
Trump’s reverse-Nixon manoeuvre
As the world reels from the scenes of the televised boxing match between Zelensky and Trump, with Vance egging the fight on, we are in danger of losing sight of what the encounter reveals about Trump’s priorities. Though it was …
Europe’s reckless bid for victory
Donald Trump wants peace, now. Volodymyr Zelensky and his European supporters want victory, later. This is what the very public disagreement in the Oval Office on Friday was all about. Peace through victory — essentially the Second World War model …
Only Poland can save Nato
In July 2028, Europe holds its breath. Russian troops, reinvigorated since the dismemberment of Ukraine three years earlier, have gathered by their hundreds of thousands on the frontiers of the EU. There are three groupings in all, stretching hundreds of …
Are we all Gaullists now?
A conventional wisdom is sweeping across much of Europe as indignity is heaped upon it by the new imperator in Washington. Maybe Charles de Gaulle was right after all. Finally, it seems, France’s age-old push for “strategic autonomy” has found …
Germany is stuck in a centrist trap
The CDU has just declared victory — but Germany is as lost as ever. From its dysfunctional economic model to its ineffective army and the lack of leadership in Europe faced with Donald Trump’s onslaughts, the Federal Republic’s urgent problems …
The fantasy of British defence
British party politics has in recent decades become an exercise in evading reality, only dealing with the world — and our country’s material conditions — as our leaders would wish them to be. Westminster’s chaotic reaction to Washington’s abrupt, if …
Can Germany trust Friedrich Merz?
At the ripe age of 69, Friedrich Merz has waited decades for this moment. Ahead of Sunday’s election, he is Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, with his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) predicted to secure 30% of the vote. He’ll have to cobble together …
Ancient Rome was built on gossip
Let’s talk about Nero’s hair. The infamous emperor liked to wear his curls long and, on a tour of Greece, “actually sported a mullet”. A mullet? Perhaps Tom Holland — in his shamelessly enjoyable new translation of The Lives of …
The end of the transatlantic alliance
There is no longer any doubt that Europe and America are parting ways. The death of the transatlantic relationship was foretold many times, but at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, it finally ended.
The great American-European divorce has played …
The end of the transatlantic alliance
There is no longer any doubt that Europe and America are parting ways. The death of the transatlantic relationship was foretold many times, but at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, it finally ended.
The great American-European divorce has played …