A federalized Europe isn’t in America’s interest

Andrew A. Mich­ta is senior fel­low and direc­tor of the Scow­croft Strat­e­gy Ini­tia­tive at the Atlantic Coun­cil of the Unit­ed States. Views expressed here are his own. There’s a sea change com­ing to Europe, and its con­se­quences for America’s rela­tions with key allies haven’t yet reg­is­tered in Wash­ing­ton. Pre­dom­i­nant­ly dri­ven by pres­sure from Berlin and Paris,…

The rise and fall of geopolitical Europe

Nathalie Toc­ci is direc­tor of the Isti­tu­to Affari Inter­nazion­ali, a part-time pro­fes­sor at the Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty Insti­tute and a Europe’s Futures fel­low at the Insti­tute for Human Sci­ences. Her lat­est book, “A Green and Glob­al Europe,” is out with Poli­ty. As the Euro­pean Union’s lead­er­ship enters its last lap, with the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment elec­tions scheduled…

Wagner and Russia are here to stay in Africa, says Lavrov

PARIS – Russia’s For­eign Min­is­ter Sergey Lavrov has vowed Wagner’s oper­a­tions in Mali and the Cen­tral African Repub­lic “will con­tin­ue” despite the failed rebel­lion led by Yevge­ny Prigozhin, leader of the mer­ce­nary Wag­n­er Group. The para­mil­i­tary group has expand­ed its reach across Latin Amer­i­ca, the Mid­dle East and Africa in recent years and it has been…

The old guard: Joe Biden seems like a spring chicken compared to some of these guys

When the U.S. pres­i­dent on Tues­day announced that he would seek reelec­tion in 2024, atten­tion quick­ly turned to his advanced age.  If elect­ed, Joe Biden would be 82 on inau­gu­ra­tion day in 2025, and 86 on leav­ing the White House in Jan­u­ary 2029.  POLITICO took a look around the globe and back through his­to­ry to meet…

‘Keep your head down’ — Americans in Russia tread carefully after arrest of US journalist

MOSCOW — If Amer­i­cans in Rus­sia were wor­ried before, they now have an extra rea­son to be con­cerned.  The arrest of the Wall Street Jour­nal reporter Evan Ger­shkovich has sent rip­ples of alarm through the com­mu­ni­ty of Amer­i­can jour­nal­ists in Rus­sia, leav­ing many in the coun­try won­der­ing who, if any­one, might be next.  Ger­shkovich was seized by FSB security…

Relations with Africa, Asia are on brink of collapse — to Russia’s benefit

Jérémy Lis­sou­ba is a mem­ber of parlia­ment for the main oppo­si­tion par­ty in the Repub­lic of Con­go. He’s also a deputy judge in the country’s High Court of Jus­tice and an alum­nus of the Oba­ma Foundation’s 2018 Africa Lead­ers Pro­gram. Over a year since the war in Ukraine began, the world remains caught in the…

Massive pro-EU, anti-Russia protest erupts in Georgia

Thou­sands of peo­ple demon­strat­ed in Tbil­isi overnight, wav­ing EU flags and fac­ing down riot police in protest against a con­tro­ver­sial law which Georgia’s pres­i­dent says is “dic­tat­ed by Moscow.”  In video footage and pho­tographs, pro­test­ers chant­ed “down with the Russ­ian law” as they squared off with heav­i­ly armored police who blast­ed them with water cannons…

Europe’s looming Ukraine fear: What happens if the US pulls back?

Europe is wak­ing up to a trou­bling real­i­ty: It may soon lose its NATO bene­fac­tor in Ukraine.  With con­ser­v­a­tives poised to make gains in the upcom­ing U.S. elec­tions, NATO’s most gen­er­ous donor to Ukraine’s war effort may sud­den­ly seem much more par­si­mo­nious in 2023. The pos­si­bil­i­ty has put the spot­light on the gap between Amer­i­can and…