With the presidential elections this year, the exciting primaries including characters like Trump and Sanders, and now the dead or judge Scalia, possibly allowing Obama to nominate another Supreme Court judge, American politics could change along a number of interesting paths. Yet, the most pressing issue is often forgotten amongst partisan rhetorics – the tedious political struggle accompanied by bipartisan governments. Continue reading Who is partisan now?
The dominant theme in last year’s coverage of Germany and migration was simple: A broad societal consensus, with the two major parties behind Merkel publicly welcoming refugees and working on a diplomatic level in their interest, while civil society actors would help as much as they could. Within that frame it can be hard to see that other side of the story. Continue reading Let’s talk about that “welcome culture”
2016 started off with Riyadh executing an influential Shia cleric, resulting in a massive diplomatic crisis with Iran. This is not the only risk taken by the Gulf monarchs recently, raising a question: Why is the monarchy, once so careful, now so proactive in their foreign policy? Continue reading The Saudi Dilemma
Since 2011, the Middle East has been shaken by democratic movements, backlashes against them and outright civil war. The relatively stable powers in the region, namely Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been trying their best to benefit from the upheavals, intervening in various ways and getting embroiled in these conflicts. With one notable exception – Israel has been exceptionally hesitant to pursue any policy whatsoever towards the Arab spring. Continue reading Israel may be successfully sleeping through the Arab spring
The gruesome attacks in Paris were framed by some as a significant change in politics, linking it to a Third World War, a “clash of civilisations“, and a possible invocation of the NATO’s 5th article. Despite all these voices stressing the huge impact, I do not see much changing for now. Continue reading How the Paris Attacks did NOT change international relations