In November 2018 French President Emmanuel Macron called for the formation of a “European army”, sparking a debate among experts and the anger of U.S. President Donald Trump. One year later, in November 2019, President Macron declared that “What we are experiencing is the brain death of NATO”. [1] His statement, as well as the actions of some NATO members ...
What do you think about French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent statement about NATO being “brain dead”? Emmanuel Macron’s comments must be put into context. He highlighted the symptoms of the NATO crisis, namely the lack of coordination between the United States and Europe, and he gave as an example of this problem the unilateral behaviour of Turkey (which is ...
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (November 13) will arrive in Washington to hold talks with US President Donald Trump. Erdogan is heading to Washington, where Turkey-US relations have been at a critical juncture in recent years, and the two NATO allies have sometimes adopted conflicting policies toward regional crises that have not pleased Ankara. Some American experts believe that the ...
Building a wall along the U.S. southern border was one of Donald Trump’s key electoral promises. While making a speech on June 16, 2015, where he announced his plans to run for presidency, he said, “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a ...
The reasons for Saudi Arabia’s gravitation toward Israel Iran and Saudi Arabia have experienced a great deal of tension in their relations in recent years. These tensions started with the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr (a Shia cleric who opposed the Saudi regime) and peaked when a number of Iranian Anti-Saudi protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Following these ...
US President Donald J. Trump’s late October announcement that Washington intends to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia, coupled with his personal distaste for arms control treaties and multilateral agreements, his interest in massive arms sales (especially to the autocratic Middle Eastern monarchies) and his perceived efforts to undermine NATO and the European Union (EU), have ...
“Even during the periods of alliance there has been a complicated state of simultaneous alliance and struggle. If we do not study the particular features of both aspects of the contradiction, we shall fail to understand not only the relations of each party with the other forces, but also the relations between the two parties.” Mao Zedong, On Contradiction (1937) ...
NAFTA crisis On the 2nd of September US President Donald Trump made an appeal to Congress, threatening to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) without a new agreement if legislators interfere in trade negotiations with Canada. ….Remember, NAFTA was one of the WORST Trade Deals ever made. The U.S. lost thousands of businesses and millions of jobs. ...
Europe Serbia: a step towards the recognition of Kosovo On August 9, Serbian President Alexander Vučić said he was in favor of delimitation with the Albanians in Kosovo, despite the fact that this decision will likely be unpopular in the country. The decision is part of an attempt at legitimizing the occupation of native Serbian territories in Kosovo in exchange ...
US-Turkey: the conflict escalates On the 1st of August the U.S. government imposed sanctions against Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the imprisonment of Andrew Brunson. The United States has blamed both for being involved in Brunson’s arrest and detention. The Pastor was accused by the Turkish government of being connected with Gulenist groups and is seen ...