As the first round of the French presidential elections approaches, a renewed international relevance is the ace up Emmanuel Macron’s sleeve. Provided that he wins both rounds — something he seems well-poised to do — and that he keeps his comfortable majority at the National Assembly, he might successfully challenge Germany’s dominance in Europe.
Franco-German relations have always been at the core of Paris’ European policy. With the 2019 Aachen Treaty, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel built on the 1963 Elysée Treaty and further strengthened their relations. Since the Covid-19 crisis, however, Paris has found itself more aligned with Rome than Berlin in many respects, as shown by a number of economic indicators. France’s average growth rate before the pandemic (2015-2019) was around 1.6%, just a bit lower than Germany’s (1.7%) and higher than Italy’s (1%).
Climate change necessitates a swift transition to clean energy and completely rethinking how we live, manufacture, produce and consume. In Europe commitments to do so are even time-bound under the EU Climate Law – 55% emissions reductions across the EU by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. Naturally, this will cost a lot of money and then some more to ensure that the transition is done in a fair and equitable manner.
The transition to low-carbon energy systems has the potential to shift geopolitical power, as it will create winners and losers across countries. The clean energy business is certainly lucrative for its winners: the IEA estimates that the transition would create a $1.2 trillion market for clean energy.
Turkey has significantly recalibrated its foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa. After having played a proactive role in the region, for over a year Ankara has gradually softened its assertive foreign policy, as it has grown increasingly aware of the need to defuse tensions, break out of its regional isolation, and mend fences with regional competitors due to international, regional, and domestic shifts.
The successful visit of Israel’s president Isaac Herzog to Turkey on March 9-10 has the potential to be the beginning of a new phase in Turkey-Israel relations. Herzog’s visit can be compared to two previous important visits of Israeli presidents to Turkey. One was the 1992 visit to Turkey by Herzog’s father, Chaim Herzog, which ushered in what was later termed as the “Golden era” of Turkey-Israel relations in the 1990s.
Asia is divided in its condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The more advanced economies, such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore, not only approved the resolution, but they had already imposed sanctions on Russia. Taiwan, too, although not represented at the UN, has expressed its condemnation of Russian actions and aligned itself with Western sanctions. However, many Asian countries have opted for a broadly neutral approach with significant differences between their positions. The most relevant ones are those of China and India.
The gloves are off. There is very little disagreement among (non-Chinese) scholars and analysts that China is the elephant in the room in the Indo-Pacific. China is challenging and indeed changing the territorial status quo in the South China Sea, has increased its unlawful intrusions into Taiwanese-controlled airspace and intrusions into Japanese-controlled territorial waters in the East China Sea.
Global economic interdependence –usually known simply as globalisation – has radically changed its role in international relations over the past two decades. It was actively pursued by major world economic powers between the 1980s and the Great Financial Crisis, as an instrument to secure good, widespread economic relations, with a view to preventing the rise of geopolitical frictions.
