In just a few years, China has gained the status of an energy efficiency champion. 

Even though the CDU-CSU led Grand Coalition was renewed following the German legislative elections of 24 September 2017, and even though Angela Merkel was re-elected chancellor a fourth consecutive term, the country has entered a period of growing political uncertainty. The formation of a new government took much longer than after previous elections for a number of different reasons: after negotiations, the liberal party refused to join a coalition with the CDU-CSU and the Green party, the SPD was reluctant to continue in government, and, above all, the internal divisions of the two sister parties CDU et CSU, that nearly caused the fall of the new government three months after its investiture.

Recent offshore gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily in Egypt as well as in Israel, but also around Cyprus, are dramatically changing these countries' energy perspectives and economies, and also influence geopolitical balances in the region. 

In the context of a persistent impunity enjoyed by organized crime and drug trafficking groups, many countries in Latin America, and especially Mexico and Colombia, have opted to assign military personnel to internal security tasks.

One of the focal points of my writings has consisted of shedding light on the problem that arises from the heterogeneity of the international (or national) system, and the need for its components to reach agreement on the rules of the game and thus avoid collapsing into hostile blocs—as well as the need for the components of those blocs, the active units, in particular the political ones, to respect them.

When the German president, foreign minister, and defense minister gave speeches at the 2014 Munich Security conference—speeches now recognized as watershed moments in Germany security policy—hope began to blossom in France. Would German defense and security policy finally become “normal?” Many viewed the now widely cited speeches as the beginning of a process in which the Germans would have overcome their “culture of restraint” and establish themselves as a full-fledged defense and security ally. 

The traditional characterisation of Moldova as a bridge between two civilisations, Russian Orthodox and the West, seems to have become outdated.

In 2015, Maroš Šefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Union, was writing about Romania as being «at a crossroads - both in strategic and physical terms.