Boris Johnson’s Brexit, coming on the heels of a recent tepid endorsement of NATO by Donald Trump’s USA, is another reminder that Europe, minus the UK will have to do more for its defence. On occasion of the last NATO-summit the widening gap between Western Europe  –  Eastern Europe clings to the Atlantic security treaty…

The rapidly deteriorating situation in the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific threatens peace and prosperity in the rest of the world, too. Can Europe do anything to prevent further sliding? ‘The Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific (AP/IP) is the future’. That gospel has been, and is resonating in Europe, too. More than ever in the past, Europe’s prosperity, and relative peace worldwide as…

In aligning himself with US President Trump with regard to policing the Gulf, the new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has abandoned any pretense that his type of Brexit would exclude security and defense matters. This is in sharp contrast to the May government before him which has always insisted that it was willing and…

In the field of competition for domination beyond national borders, one of the keys to strategic power is the capacity to project military power. For those who fear Chinese expansion, it is therefore relevant to look first at the development of China’s military means. From 2008 to 2018, China has doubled its defense budget. That…

Yes, the far-right gained in the recent European elections, yet is riven by nationalist preoccupations. More worrying is another long-term trend. Beyond the somewhat confusing continental results of the elections to the European Parliament, a longstanding trend becomes clearer. Britain is trying to go alone on its nationalist and conservative way, mirroring the US and…

More than a church went up in flames in the Parisian fire which destroyed the interior of the cathedral Notre-Dame, though leaving the stone façade intact. The reconstruction, already decided and well-financed has symbolic value. Ken Follett called the medieval cathedrals in Europe ‘The Pillars of the Earth’. Notre-Dame de Paris, ‘Our Lady of Paris’,…

Russia, a big European power, is also an Asian power, in fact a genuinely Eurasian great power. Due to its conflict with its largest European neighbour, the Ukraine, but also overall tense relations with the EU, Russia finds itself isolated at its European front. Having realised that a greater role in a European context seems…