The year 2020 was to be a pivotal year for (re)formulating Europe's Africa strategy. Germany and France were committed to strengthening relations between the two continents and to consolidating them at the sixth summit of the African Union and the European Union, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After the regional elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg in March 2021, the FDP is attracting more attention again, mainly because of its traditional role as a coalition party.

Hypersonic systems are becoming attributes of power for the states that design and implement them, at the risk of reviving an arms race.

In the far northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the province of Ituri experienced a decade of relative peace between 2007 and 2017 and is nowadays victim of the resurgence of its historic inter-communal conflict between the Hema and the Lendu. 

The world’s largest emitting countries are reconsidering the role of carbon pricing instruments and increasingly looking at carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) to address leakage concerns. This renewed momentum should trigger a broader discussion on how to make trade policies compatible with the climate agenda.

The end of the Trump presidency has demonstrated both the strength of institutions and their weakness. 

The sharp rebound in oil prices since the second half of 2020, to nearly $70 per barrel in May 2021, represents only a temporary respite for oil-dependent African economies that must change their economic model very quickly.

The pandemic has revealed the fragility of the Indian economy.

The European Union’s energy infrastructure policy has become obsolete with the adoption of both the Green Deal and the 2050 climate neutrality target. The ongoing review of the regulation on Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) should lead to an-depth discussion on Europe’s energy transition strategy.

China is now an undeniable heavyweight on the international scene, wielding a remarkable range of political strategies. Studying its position in the surrounding area of Southeast Asia in relation to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, as well as Australia, gives us an understanding of both the strength and the limits of such a diverse range of actions.

Mass vaccination against COVID-19 identifies several groups of countries: rich countries with rapid vaccination; countries that develop and produce vaccines, but do not prioritize vaccination of their own population; and poorer countries that will only achieve herd immunity by 2022 or 2023.

In the event of a major conflict, Iran could decide to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would cause a global energy crisis.

China is exerting pressure on its surrounding area in South-East Asia to implement its concept of a “community with a shared destiny”. 

In recent years, the People's Republic of China's policy towards Taiwan has become increasingly aggressive.

When dealing with China, Japan has assumed a position that protects its economic cooperation with Beijing, ensures Chinese aggressive strategies are deterred and guarantees its overall economic security: security of supply, autonomy in technological development, etc. 

Satellite constellations have become core elements of the digital transition. Over the next decade, several thousand satellites will have to be launched, to build these constellations.  For positioning satellites, preferably in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), reliable and affordable launch services are essential.

Based on a field survey carried out in Côte d'Ivoire as part of the research program “Faire des politiques publiques en Afrique”, the author questions the genesis of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the field of global health and its appropriation in the Ivorian context.

What will the economic order in the Indo-Pacific region look like twenty years from now? What are the major trends shaping it, and how are they likely to evolve in the near future?

EU-Japan relations have undergone a major uplift over the past 5 years. Bound by the Economic and Strategic Partnership Agreements, as well as the Partnership on Sustainable Connectivity, the two once-distant players have been stepping up efforts to address the many shared security concerns in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Ahead of the upcoming EU-Japan summit, this Policy Brief takes stock of the current state of play and offers some food for thought on how to move forward with the bilateral relationship.

Tensions at sea are growing and multiplying both in the East and the South China Seas.

In 2020-2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson undertook to fundamentally change the operational mode and strategy of relations between the United Kingdom and the African continent bequeathed by his predecessors since 1997.

The Franco-Turkish standoff is first and foremost a geopolitical contest for influence in the EastMed area. It must be understood in light of Turkey’s rise as an emergent power in quest for geostrategic autonomy and France’s unease with Ankara’s growing assertiveness in a region that Paris traditionally views as part of its sphere of influence. 

In late February 2021, Germany’s left-wing party Die Linke gave themselves a new party executive. The new team is supposed to lead the party into the federal elections in September and, if possible, into a national center-left government.

The extraordinarily troublesome year 2020 tested many international institutions and bilateral ties, but few experienced sharper challenges than the complex relations between Russia and Turkey, which have a strong impact on crisis developments in Europe’s immediate neighborhood.

Turkey’s activism in the Eastern Mediterranean now appears to be guided by an ambitious legal and geopolitical doctrine, based on the claim of a vast maritime domain – the “Blue Homeland” or Mavi Vatan in Turkish. 

Lesotho is a landlocked mountain kingdom encased in South Africa for which it is a reservoir of water and labor. This kingdom of tormented creation is in a structural political and security crisis. Since 1993 and the return to multiparty politics, all elections, except that of 2002, needed regional mediation. 

This paper explores how the E3 format – involving France, Germany and the UK – might develop in response to the challenges presented by the UK’s departure from the EU. The paper outlines how the trilateral format has supported policymaking to date, most notably in dialogue on Iran’s nuclear programme.

La Guerre de vingt ans was awarded the Prize for the best book on geopolitics in 2021.

What does future hold for the Franco-British defense partnership after Brexit?

Analysis from 17 countries and EU institutions reveals that Chinese soft power in Europe – defined as the ability to influence preferences through attraction or persuasion – has seen better days.

In recent years, Denmark has steadily emerged as a leader and role model in the global green energy transition. Its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2010 have been reduced at greater pace than those of the European Union (EU) average. 

In Germany's parliamentary democracy, political parties play an important role in mandating Bundeswehr missions abroad and in overseeing their deployment. The political debate on these deployments is polarized between opponents, who are called “pacifists”, and supporters, who are called “militarists”.

Aligning its climate and industrial policies, the European Union (UE) is introducing sustainability requirements for the whole life-cycle of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This initiative would not only ensure that EVs fit with Europe’s climate-neutrality and resource-efficiency pledges, but also give European new entrants a better chance to compete.

To respond to growing global competition, the EU has made notable progress on the internal dimension of technology policy over the past 3 years. It is now also seeking to adapt its foreign policy – from the transatlantic relationship to global partnerships – to technological challenges.

Let’s face it: while there are growing expectations for a French and European enhanced engagement in the Indo-Pacific, when Europeans step up their commitment, or express their willingness to do so, they are often met with disdain, on the ground that they would not make a big difference in front of China. Is that really so?

This paper argues that Russia’s soft power should be understood as a niche soft power, microtargeting some specific audiences based on four particularisms:

2020 marked the beginning of the total phasing out of electricity production based on coal, as well as coal extraction in Germany. Laws implemented in 2020 concluded a governmental process started in 2015, which itself resulted from a prior broader debate on the role of coal in a viable and sustainable energy and economic system.

In order to have any chance of limiting global warming to well below +2°C, there is no choice but to tackle coal-fired power plants head-on, around the world. 

The Trump administration has been very actively designing and implementing a new strategy for reliable supply of critical minerals which aims at reducing the country’s vulnerabilities and becoming a leader in this field.