2025 is already characterized by the accelerated erosion of the West and global fragmentation on energy and climate policies, security, trade and governance. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the United States is once more preparing to exit the global climate governance, while coal has again passed another consumption record in 2024. Yet annual clean sector investments are finally nearing the 2 trillion $ mark, notably driven by energy security and industrial policies.
 

The new German government, a "grand coalition" likely led by Friedrich Merz, will have to navigate a complex international environment, marked notably by a disruption of transatlantic relations. The Trump administration's attacks on traditional U.S. allies, the rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, as well as the uncertainties surrounding the future of NATO, are shaking the paradigms of German foreign policy.

From Maputo to Nairobi and from Lagos to Dakar: recently, African cities have been the theatre of mobilizations by groups of young protesters.

A new European security architecture has to be built. The question is: will this happen with or without Europe? The US President, Donald Trump, who returned to the White House a little more than two months ago, and the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, have initiated talks to put an end to the war in Ukraine, with the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia being raised.

Discussion with Dr. Johann Wadephul, member of the Bundestag and Vice-Chairman of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag for Foreign Affairs, Defense, the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), Council of Europe.

European security has been challenged in 2022 with the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

European foreign intelligence services have had to continuously adapt to the rapidly evolving security landscape of the past few years. Following challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, financial crises, and hybrid threats, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has placed conventional military conflict at the centre of European security concerns.

How should European security be approached in the face of the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine?

Ifri is hosting a high-level closed-doors discussion aimed at creating a shared space for open and operational reflections on the future of EU’s technological and industrial resilience against the backdrop of ever-more fraught geopolitics, eroding energy intensive industries, mounting value chain vulnerabilities, and populism.

Donald Trump’s announcement in January 2025 of his intention to seize Greenland has brought the Arctic back to the forefront of great power rivalries.