Anyone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion should be protected by the Geneva Refugee Convention which celebrates its 70th anniversary on 28th July 2021. Any person meeting these universal criteria is a refugee and should never be pushed…
The adverse impacts of climate change are being felt across the world and the pressures on our planet are increasing. The protection of our environment is no longer an option and urgently requires strong and even radical measures to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases. It is therefore of the utmost importance to tackle the…
Donald Trump’s presidency was characterised first and foremost by his extravagant personality and his populism, but it also wrought a profound change in American politics.Today, populism is a feature of all democracies and the 46th President-elect, Joe Biden, would do well to cultivate a moderate populism if he is to “restore the soul” of his…
This summer was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still ravaging people worldwide. At least 1 million people have now died from the virus. This grim milestone comes only eight months after we learned about a mysterious virus infecting people in China. And the pandemic is currently regaining strength. How strongly populations will be…
Like a tsunami leaving its devastating footprint, the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world like lightning and made no difference between rich and poor, leaving blighted hopes and provoking a societal crisis due to economic stagnation. Some countries will cope better than others, but the recovery will be long, painful and costly for all. Upcoming societal…
Why are populist movements in Europe currently getting stronger and more influential? Will the European institutions survive if, after the elections to the new European Parliament, there is a widespread presence of Eurosceptic members intentionally criticising the work of the Parliament? Must we fear that the achievements of the Union over the last 60 years…
When the author of these lines sat down, over ten years ago, with Hartmut Bühl, the Editor-in-Chief of this magazine, to flesh out the idea of capitalising on our experience in publishing an occasional series of monographs on European security to launch a regular magazine on European Security and Defence, we were convinced that the…
How could it have come to this? For the first time an anti-system and anti-European government has been formed in a founding Member State of the European Union (EU). Like previous elections in Europe, the Italian election has demonstrated once again that voter rejection of Europe is largely driven by a sometimes vicious campaign rhetoric…
Both the deterrence principle that prevented major conventional wars and nuclear annihilation and the detente policy that helped bring about the end of the Cold War have ceased to decisively influence the course of history. Yet no viable alternatives are in sight. Fear and reason underpinned the deterrence system based on mutual assured destruction in…
The young President’s landslide victory in the presidential elections and the absolute majority he won during the ensuing parliamentary elections bring home the need for Emmanuel Macron to make the most of this grace period in order to launch a comprehensive reform programme. With his newly-founded party “La République en marche” he has swept aside…