This study analyses the joint efforts by France and Germany to bring about a comprehensive reform of the European currency union. These efforts culminated in the joint Meseberg Declaration adopted in June 2018. The article contextualises these efforts with respect to the reforms realised so far and the different reform options at hand. Besides questions of economic viability and institutional deficits, the article tackles issues of political feasibility.

For decades, the Franco-Japanese partnership has essentially been characterised by a vibrant cultural exchange as well as by sound economic relations. Today Japan is France’s second-largest trading partner in Asia (after China) and its leading Asian investor.

The Trump Administration’s Indo-Pacific security strategy is a case study in foreign policymaking under a non-unitary executive.

For decades, Europe has been trying to chart a path away from the military competition and strategic rivalries that brought it to ruins so many times in history. 

On the occasion of the conference held on the 22 November 2018 marking the 160th anniversary of Franco-Japanese diplomatic relations, Ifri publishes two parallel articles offering French and Japanese perspectives on the bilateral security partnership. Michito Tsuruoka's analysis of Japan's point of view is available here.

On the occasion of the conference held on the 22 November 2018 marking the 160th anniversary of Franco-Japanese diplomatic relations, Ifri publishes two parallel articles offering French and Japanese perspectives on the bilateral security partnership. Céline Pajon’s analysis of French point of view is available here.

The instruments of cooperative security created during and since the Cold War to foster mutual confidence and reduce the risks of war, inadvertent escalation, and arms races, in and around Europe, have come under increasing strain.

The Asia–Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) — a Japan–India initiative to promote connectivity between Asia and East Africa and encourage joint projects in Africa — is often misrepresented. All too often, the AAGC is depicted as a political move aimed exclusively at countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The return of more conflictual relations between Russia and the West following Russia’s intervention in Eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea has led to a deterioration in the strategic environment for Northern European countries, particularly in the Baltic Sea Region and the Arctic.

The 14 July 2015 Vienna agreement on Iran’s nuclear activities (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPoA) was a game changer on the geopolitics in the Middle East and for the oil market. The oil sanctions were lifted and Iran increased significantly its production and exports. On 8 May 2018, President Trump announced that the United Stated (US) would withdraw from the agreement. Financial sanctions were reintroduced. From 5 November 2018 onwards, further sanctions will be re-imposed more specifically on petroleum related transactions, including the purchase of petroleum, petroleum products and petrochemical products. What could be the impact of this new embargo? Is there a risk of a new oil supply and price shock?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a priority defense issue for the military powers of the 21^st century. Unsurprisingly, the United States and China are currently at the forefront of this new digitalized arms race. 

With an annual growth of 10% in 2017 to 290 million tons (Mt) and 8.3% in the first half of 2018,​ Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) demand is rising faster than expected. Accounting for 44% of global demand growth in 2017, China is the main driver of the growth as the government has made natural gas a key policy choice to reduce air pollution and restructure its high-carbon energy mix. 

When it comes to energy and electricity in particular, there can be no winner in the Brexit negotiations. The only reasonable objective should be to minimise losses and avoid trade friction.

With the Basic Hydrogen Strategy (hereafter, the Strategy) released on December 26, 2017, Japan reiterated its commitment to pioneer the world’s first “Hydrogen Society”. The Strategy primarily aims to achieve the cost parity of hydrogen with competing fuels, such as gasoline in transport and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in power generation. 

On June 5th 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain broke off diplomatic relations with Qatar and agreed to isolate the Emirate via an air and land blockade.

Since its creation in 2005, the European emission trading system (EU ETS) has been through several periods of turmoil. With emission allowances (EUA) averaging around 7 euros per ton from 2012 to 2017, European Member States have been trying to remedy the depressed price signals successively through market design reforms at both European level (backloading, market stability reserve) and national level, with the UK introducing a carbon price floor for its domestic power sector in 2013.

In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India rendered its verdict in a landmark case with major implications for the Aadhaar biometric identification project as well as the application of right to privacy in India, but the Aadhaar Matter raises important questions about the shortcomings of the Supreme Court’s practice of judicial review.

During its two sessions (lianghui) in March 2018, the National People’s Congress (NPC) announced China’s most important institutional reforms in the last 30 years. These changes occurred right after Xi Jinping consolidated his power and at a time when stakeholders working in the energy field were expecting more clarity on policy orientations. 

Under particular US legal rationale, such as calling foreign imports a “national security threat”, President Donald Trump has started imposing tariffs and/or quotas and has launched national security investigations on a growing number of imported goods from US allies and others alike.

For some time, Western sources have been accusing Moscow of backing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Recently, Zambian politics have been changing in a pretty checkered manner. The threat of corruption, political violence and ethnic-politics has been growing since the ruling Patriotic Front Party (PF) assumed power in 2011.

In the last decade, the strengthening of the India-Japan strategic partnership has been primarily driven by geopolitical considerations, in an era of competing regional visions and influence.

The nature of work has been remarkably transformed in a short period of time through the combined effect of globalization and technological disruptions. Ongoing technological breakthroughs, carried by increasingly digitalized and automated economic activities, and the “democratization” of artificial intelligence, heighten fears of massive job destructions and the deepening of social inequalities, to the detriment of downgraded and pauperized middle classes.

How do we get out of wars? One hundred years after 1918, Politique étrangère’s special report takes up this question from different perspectives in relation to the conflicts in which Western armies, willingly or otherwise, are embroiled.

The leaders of Iran nurture regional ambitions, and are conscious of the limits of their country’s power.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is swiftly moving forward and becoming a real tool of power.

RAMSES 2019. The Clashes of the Future, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of global geopolitics.

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.

Data no longer should be understood as a sole commercial or regulatory issue, but rather as an actual stake of international politics. Mastering data is an issue involving different set of actors, with diverging motivations: it is a sovereignty and national security stake for states, a democratic stake for people (personal data), and a fundamental source of value creation for companies. 

The 1970s were a decade of anti-war movements. Willy Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his détente policy toward the Eastern Bloc – and West German defense spending peaked at 3.13 percent of GDP in 1975. Clearly, those days are long gone.

Since the Italian election held on March 4th, 2018, immigration policy has become a hotter-than-ever issue both at national and European level. The Aquarius incident has brought to light the question of European solidarity regarding immigration issues.

This paper aims to highlight both the financial, economic and political adjustment cycle, affecting two Central African petro-states, Gabon and the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).