In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the West now has no choice but to impose the toughest possible economic sanctions on Russia and to seek to unite as much of the world as possible in pressing Russia to end the attack. All scholars and analysts of Russia and the countries of the former...Read More

In recent years, the world’s great powers have increasingly placed their own narrow interests and their deepening competition with one another ahead of the well-being of the wider international order: the United States reiterates its lofty principles without truly addressing the security concerns of its adversaries; Russia pursues destabilizing actions to gain an edge in...Read More

The most recent India-EU summits, held on 15 July 2020 and 8 May 2021, significantly enhanced the strategic dimension of the bilateral relationship. India was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Union when representatives of the then EEC met with several Indian diplomats based in Europe in 1961. But...Read More

The Western attempt to expel Russia from Europe has failed. That there was such an attempt was always implicit in the strategy of seeking to admit every European country but Russia into NATO and the European Union. In this context, the NATO slogan “A Europe Whole and Free” is an explicit statement that Russia is...Read More

The EU’s relationship with Russia for the past decade or more has been characterised by uncertainty. That uncertainty finally came to an end in 2021, albeit in a fashion which raised further questions over the EU’s ability to become a significant player in the emerging multipolar international order. EU-Russia relations have been through several hurdles...Read More

The new threat of war over Ukraine resulting from the Russian demands of December 2021 should focus the minds of U.S. and European policymakers on the unsolved dispute that is responsible for much of the tension between Russia and Ukraine, and that provides the most likely flashpoint for war. The Donbas conflict, which has cost...Read More

Despite incoming US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan expressing disappointment about EU Member States’ decision to move forward with the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China in December 2020, the EU’s expectation of consultation was not reciprocated when the US unilaterally withdrew from Afghanistan this summer. Shortly afterwards, the launch of the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy...Read More

Although the EU has not yet provided details of the sources of finance for its Global Gateway program, nonetheless, EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen has said stated, in general terms, that the EU will look to develop these sources to “connect institutions and investment, banks and the business community”.  In practical terms this is...Read More

The rollout of China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) across the northern half of the Mediterranean Sea is typically portrayed in strikingly polar opposite terms depending on the political source. Western think-tanks and Washington/Brussels-centric media regularly depict the BRI as a plot by the Chinese Communist Party to ‘undermine European unity’, ‘divide the transatlantic alliance’,...Read More

Part 1. Short-term Inflation and Risk Factors Although inflation (defined in nominal terms as an increase in the general price level) is increasing. in the US, UK, and the Euro area, following a long period of deflation and a pandemic slowdown in economic growth. Yet it is too early to claim that the current inflation...Read More