Thirty years after Rio, the case file “Climate: Which way forward?” assesses current climate commitments, which are undoubtedly less impressive and less certain than the political pronouncements and media fanfare make them seem. A number of fundamental problems remain. 

At COP26, a long-term target to keep global warming below 1.5°C was set. This goal is inconsistent with the commitments that the signatory countries have made in terms of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The February 2021 coup encountered a level of resistance that the military did not expect: demonstrations, boycotts, and a slide toward an armed resistance against repression from the authorities. 

During COP26, Beijing and the Biden administration committed to reviving Sino-American cooperation on climate issues, in the name of their common interest in climate stability. 

Facing Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, European countries have enacted economic and financial sanctions against Russia. 

Ethiopia has been in a state of civil war since November 2020. The hostilities have already gone through several phases. 

One month before the French presidential election, this briefing assesses the actions undertaken during Macron's term as well as the presidential candidates' proposals concerning France's digital sovereignty.

When it was founded in August 1991, the Weimar Triangle was intended as a forum for trilateral consultations between the foreign ministers of France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Poland on the future of Europe after the end of the Cold War.

The German government has long hesitated to take a position on the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. It has refused to question the planned commissioning of Nord Stream 2 and to supply Ukraine with weapons.

As the commercial anchor of the space sector, the downstream sector plays an essential role in Europe where industry focuses mainly on application markets and where socio-economic considerations have become the main driver of space policy. 

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is a first step toward reconciling the European Union (EU)’s climate and trade interests. However, a complementary set of domestic and external policies will be needed to drive the decarbonization of European and global energy-intensive industries.

The year 2021 marked the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania. Instead of commemorative events and customary lofty rhetoric, the bilateral relationship rapidly plunged to a level rarely seen in either country’s foreign policies since the end of the Cold War.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s speech to the Bundestag on February 27, 2022, announced a new orientation in foreign policy and challenged the principles that had been the consensus in Germany for the past thirty years.

The number of small satellites in orbit has increased rapidly over the last decade, and the growth of this sector is expected to accelerate even more in coming years. 

The strengthening of the partnership between Russia and Iran depends on overlapping security interests; bilaterally, regionally and on the world stage.

Due to historical as well as geographical reasons, India and East Africa have long been close partners. In the recent period however, and even more so since the early 2000s, these ties have tightened as a result of combined efforts by the government of India and its business community. 

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis puts to the test the cohesion of the new traffic light coalition, the authority of Chancellor Scholz and the ambition to adapt the post-Merkel German foreign policy. 

The bilateral defense agreement signed by France and Greece in September 2021 confirms the strategic turn of the relationship between the two countries. It was already unveiled in 2020 when Paris supported Athens to counter Turkish maritime operations that France and Greece considered very hostile.

The tough-on-China policy adopted by the Trump and Biden administrations has – and will increasingly have – important consequences for Washington’s allies, both on their infrastructure choices (5G, submarine cables...) and on their technological exchanges with China. 

The unprecedented growth of space activities, the multiplication as well as diversification of players involved in the exploitation of outer space, and even, more generally, the dependence of all sectors of activity on space infrastructures are some of the main phenomena that have led to a progressive overuse of orbits and to saturation in the frequency spectrum. 

By 2050, about 60% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will live in urban areas. The governance of the rapid growth of capital and intermediary cities in Africa is one of the priorities of the international development agenda. 

The issues of employment and work for refugees have received increasing attention from both the political, NGO and economic spheres in France since 2017, but few studies have yet to address this subject. This study was born out of cooperation between the Observatory on Immigration and Asylum and the “Work with Refugees” collective, that brings together several French NGOs supporting refugees and asylum seekers into employment.

Quantum physics, a field little known to the general public and relatively difficult to grasp as its laws are counter-intuitive, constitutes nevertheless a critical field of international strategic competition.

After years of lower interest, France has signaled its ambition to re-engage in the Western Balkans. It is not starting from scratch. Historical affinities with the countries of the region abound, in culture, sciences, politics, and economy.

Since 2020, the exploitation of gold from mining sites in the Wamuzimu chiefdom in the South Kivu province by Chinese companies has aroused great discontent among the population. 

France’s policy vis-à-vis the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always been ambivalent. On paper, France’s strategic culture fits well within NATO’s nature and agenda. Yet, in practice, French membership of NATO has always been uneasy. Several intra-alliance developments will likely affect the quality of French-NATO relations over the next few years.

Geoengineering is a catchword for a wide range of techniques, and it is becoming an international issue that will grow in importance as the costs of certain technologies fall or as greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline, making these techniques more attractive.

The escalating crisis in Ukraine in the winter of 2021-2022 has returned US-Russia relations to center stage.

2.6 billion people globally and 1 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cook using biomass fuel. The detrimental effects on the environment and public health, as well as the time and money lost are considerable. If nothing new is done, this situation will worsen further in SSA.

The acute Sino-American tensions which started in 2018 have been coupled with controversies around 5G technology, exemplified by the spotlight placed on Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei and the security risks associated with its use. For Europe, the 5G challenge at the international level is drawing a very complex landscape. 

India has one of the oldest space programs in the world with space playing a critical role in India’s national development and external power projection capability.

The year 2022 marks thirty years since the creation of the Commandement des operations spéciales (COS, Special Operations Command). Those three decades have been dominated by missions carried out in volatile environments, most often against irregular adversaries, primarily terrorist groups.

The market for decentralized solar systems first developed in rural Africa, and today it is expanding to the continent’s cities, though these areas are already covered by each country’s central network.

Despite their difference in size, Korea and the EU have developed over time a strong and deep relation through direct investment flows. Germany dominates the relationship, but there remains ample room for the other EU member-states to further develop their relations with Korea.

Despite some constraints on their Indo-Pacific strategies, South Korea and France could consider bilateral dialogues for partnership in the Indo-Pacific, leading to a high level of confidence and strategic convergence in security. 

The election of the Commission to run the African Union (AU) on February 6 and 7, 2021 was an important step towards implementing its institutional reform. The Commission is the institution’s real government, setting the pan-African organization’s objectives under the leadership of the Heads of State who meet once a year at the Assembly. The Chadian Moussa Faki, who was re-elected as AU Commission (AUC) Chairperson, has the onerous task of undertaking this reform, initiated by the former AU Chair, Rwandan president Paul Kagamé, between 2016 and 2018.

Russia’s Islam has been much more than the two Chechen wars, and regular terrorist actions that have shaken the Russian territory. Islam constitutes an integral part of Russia’s history and culture, and the Putin regime regularly celebrates Islam’s contribution to the country and its great power reassertion.

How to reduce the vulnerabilities induced by these global value chains to be more independent, while taking into account the reality of these productive processes which precisely generate interdependencies?

The eurozone crisis marked a real failure of European Union (EU) policy, which led to mediocre economic performance and the erosion of its political legitimacy among the populations of member states.

Françoise Nicolas contributed the chapter on trade, providing more insights into the opportunities and challenges South Korea and the EU need to address to revive the rules-based multilateral trading system.