Raison d’Etat: Richelieu’s Grand Strategy During the Thirty Years’ War
On a cold winter day in 1793, a crowd of French revolutionaries burst into the chapel of the Sorbonne. Streaming toward a large sarcophagus in the center of the apse, the mob laid into the cool marble with their rifle butts, hammering away at the central figure’s aquiline features. Howling vandals d…
South Korea accuses Japan of waging ‘economic war’
Hong Kong (CNN Business)Japan dropped South Korea as a preferred trading partner on Friday, escalating a dispute that threatens the global supply chain for smartphones and electronic devices. The decision to remove South Korea from a so-called white list means that Japanese exports to…
Huntington’s Legacy
Samuel Huntington was not right about everything. Rather, his greatness lay in his ability to conceptualize big ideas in a wide variety of fields. The first in a series of three essays celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. Ot…
Understanding the Failure of U.S. Foreign Policy: The Albright Doctrine
How to describe U.S. foreign policy over the last couple of decades? Disastrous comes to mind. Arrogant and murderous also seem appropriate. Since 9/11, Washington has been extraordinarily active militarily—invading two nations, bombing and droning several others, deploying special operations forces…
The outbreak of the second Cold War
Regular readers of this column will not have been surprised by the outbreak of the Second Cold War. Ever since President Trump imposed the first tariffs on Chinese imports last year, I have argued that the trade war between the United States and China would last longer than most people expected and …
Hurting China is causing damage to the world
Given the American administration’s trade war on China escalates, the question is whom China can rely on in this delicate moment of its 40-years-long economic history of opening up to the world, except on its own effort. China’s vice premier, the brilliantly modest Liu He, counters to the U.S….
Renewable energies as a solution to climate change: Barriers for diffusion and steps to global energy transition
Addressing climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It requires the urgent transformation of the global economy, private and public sectors, and sustainable development strategies. Links between climate change impact and sustainable development are strong and intertwined. What m…
Unemployed, High-skilled Young Adults in Southeast Europe
Evident, yet so neglected—that would be a proper way to describe the problem of youth unemployment in Southeast Europe. Total unemployment rate in Europe tells only half of the story, because the other half is hiding a painful truth about the incompetence of particular countries to find a place for …
The Multi-player Game in Central Asia
The region of Central Asia has a reminiscent feeling of a bygone age, a remote area on the Eurasian land mass occupied by the Soviets but never entirely conquered. During the Cold War Central Asia provided the Soviet Union with even more strategic depth, allowing it to expand and project its power t…
Religious Freedom in Ukraine
The United States strongly supports religious freedom, including the freedom of members of groups to govern their religion according to their beliefs and practice their faiths freely without government interference. The United States respects the ability of Ukraine’s Orthodox religious leaders and f…