Russian Foreign Policy: Shifting Gears
Not long ago, a popular Russian joke went: “Those who do not want to listen to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have to deal with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.” Now it is official. President Vladimir Putin often makes statements on foreign policy. Just last month, he spent several hours discuss…
Transparency and legal (un)certainty in European merger control
In March 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued a so-called Article 22 Merger Control Guidance (“Guidance”) on referral rules, encouraging Member States to refer to the Commission concentrations that do not meet national filing thresholds. While the Commission calls this new approach a …
Protecting Data in the Age of Cyber Warfare
With the advancement of science and technology, many aspects of the human community are changing rapidly. Among these, one can very intelligibly and visibly notice the changes in modern day warfare. States no longer deploy its troops to partake in armed conflicts; rather they comfortably plan mass a…
Time to Overhaul the Global Financial System
For low- and lower-middle-income countries to pursue their development goals and do their part in tackling problems like climate change, they need to be able to borrow reliably on decent market terms. Yet the current two-tiered global financial system extends this privilege almost exclusively to ric…
Modern Warfare: Corporate Mercenaries and Wars for Profit
Mercenaries are referred to as the “ world’s second-oldest profession ”. The private military force began to be stigmatised as a result of nation-states that effectively outlawed the private force: the Westphalian world order. The end of the Cold War catalysed an emergence of mercenary activity, whi…
Why Italy’s Presidential Election Matters
With its poor track record of managing EU funds, Italy’s recovery plan will be a major test for the future of EU policymaking more generally. While it is widely agreed that Prime Minister Mario Draghi must remain on the scene to oversee the plan’s implementation, in what capacity would he be most us…
World faces hunger dilemma in Afghanistan
The fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban has presented the world with some stark choices. In recent weeks, the international community has raised alarm about the rapidly escalating humanitarian emergency in the country, calling for an influx of aid to reach millions of Afghans ahead of the w…
The Taiwan Triangle
NEW YORK – The relationship between the United States and China promises to do much to define this era. And what could determine this relationship might well be whether the two countries are able to continue to avoid armed conflict over Taiwan. But with signs that the chances of conflict are growing…
Justice on Trial: Opening Up the Black Box of the Tokyo Tribunal
The U.S.-China competition in waters of the Indo-Pacific, harboring an array of security dilemmas, has ignited debates about the likelihood of war and adequate diplomatic, military, and legal remedies to prevent such a catastrophe. Tumultuous periods of human history such as the 1930s, WWII, and the…
Convention 108+ Signatories and Adequacy Under the GDPR
In today’s world, it is hard to imagine that any organisation might use personal data without transferring it, and commonly used cloud applications can serve as an illustrative example. Most organizations use at least one of them in every day’s work, which implies transferring personal data across t…