The Global Perspective

  The new year beckons, and with it, the yearly urge by international policy analysts to identify what could be the defining events of 2024. This year promises to be rich in major events, both for Europe and the world. Here are some key themes to watch: 1. Election year: There will be elections in key countries, including India, Taiwan, Russia, the EU (not a country, but the European Parliament still represents 450 million people) and the United States. Of these, the US Presidential elections in November will be the most closely watched, given that Donald Trump is once again a front runner and is promising revenge if elected. 2. The Rise of the Right in Europe: Europe will face its own internal struggles in the form of the European Parliament elections. The recent rise of right-wing and extremist parties poses a serious threat to the current consensus in Brussels, should they gain a sizable parliamentary representation. This could lead to a shift in EU policies and governance, with im

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has rightly sparked global concern and emotional pleas for a ceasefire. The images of suffering Palestinian civilians are harrowing. However, calls for Israel to unilaterally lay down arms while ignoring Hamas's role in the crisis risk neglecting a crucial aspect of the conflict: the asymmetrical nature of the threats faced by both sides. On October 7th, Israel faced an unprecedented onslaught. Hamas, operating from a sophisticated network of tunnels beneath Gaza, killed, tortured and kidnapped over a thousand Israeli civilians and unleashed a barrage of rockets targeting civilian populations throughout Israel. This intricate underground system serves as both a weapons cache and a military base, establishing Hamas as an armed force operating from the heart of a densely populated city. It is hard to demand that Israel should allow an army to place its barracks under a populated city, from which it can repeat such attacks.  Demand

In the United States, over the past few years, events such as the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer and movements such as Black Lives Matter have been putting into question how committed the United States of America is to treating its black citizens fairly. One major point of criticism is the “systemic racism” that permeates public life in the country, putting black people at a disadvantage in the job market, education, academia and politics. On the other hand, many of the most ardent supporters of former president Donald Trump display confederate flags, suggesting nostalgic memories of the pre-civil war period. In Russia, president Vladimir Putin is accusing Ukraine of being a stooge of Western powers bent on destroying Russian society and threatening the nation’s very existence. He seems to claim that Ukraine is a part of Russian national identity which the west is trying to take away.  In Europe, during the 2010s a series of anti-EU movements emerged in various

The quest for the energy system of the future -  clean, cheap, reliable

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a watershed moment in European history. It is a clear attempt to rebuild walls and iron curtains across Europe, reversing the momentous changes that took place in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. That was an epoch-changing event, which ended a 40-year long Cold War between a democratic and capitalist West (Western Europe plus the USA, Canada and Japan) and a Communist world which included dozens of countries on several continents, under the ideological and military leadership of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, communist parties all over the world were left in a state of crisis. Communist regimes collapsed, and in democratic countries, Communist parties had to adapt to the new reality, most of the time disbanding, joining other political movements, or mutating into broader-based progressive political formations. The few that survived have mostly stayed as small, marginal movements largely isolated from the mainstream left. More bro

By Giacomo Valentini 2022 marks the launch of the operative phase of Artemis, the ambitious moon project by US space agency NASA in collaboration with European and other agencies. The goal is to return a human to the moon by mid-decade, followed by a permanent moon based by the end of the 2020s. The programme includes building an orbiting mini-space station in lunar orbit (the Gateway) to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots. Artemis will rely on a complex of vehicles, including various types of launchers, spacecraft and moon rovers. The project is likely to raise tensions with the West’s traditional rivals - Russia and China. The risk is a push for militarisation of cislunar space, i.e. the area of space within the lunar orbit.  The Artemis programme is very ambitious, and will rely heavily on international cooperation and private participation to produce viable results. The operational agreement a