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.

The grand coalition’s record on European policy is mixed. On budgetary issues, the CDU-CSU and SPD were able to implement the agreements in the coalition agreement, but on fundamental reforms of the European Union, only small steps were taken.

One cannot help but wonder about Germany’s future foreign policy when one considers both the weight of the Federal Republic and the many crises we face internationally.

An exceptional issue of Politique étrangère

Confronted with a world in which the fundamentals are being redefined, France’s foreign policy is under scrutiny. In which geographies should France assert its presence? To which major challenges should France be responding in order to survive in tomorrow’s world? What kind of relationship to that world should France be establishing, as thirty years of Western intervention have ended in catastrophic failure in Afghanistan?

This seems like a fitting moment to strengthen European cooperation on defense.