Media Interventions

Just as the Greek cities in the Mediterranean did over two thousand years ago, today the United States and China are seeking to control the sea lanes. Europe is watching the ships go by. On July 6, off the coast of Yemen, not far from Djibouti and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Greek and Liberian bulk carrier Magic Seas, loaded with fertilizer and steel, sank after being attacked by drone boats and rocket launchers. The next day, the Eternity C, hit by missile fire, sank, killing some of the crew.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on August 29 for the Franco-German Council of Ministers. They discussed Europe’s economy, support for Ukraine, and defense, with Merz pushing for German leadership on security. But political tensions in France and Germany are straining the partnership amid broader concerns over NATO, nuclear deterrence, and Europe’s reliance on US protection. Marie Krpata, Research Fellow at the Study Committee on Franco-German Relations at IFRI, has more on this issue.

In the wake of the war in Ukraine, Germany and France are working to define security guarantees for Kyiv.

The French president must now rely more than ever on Merz to make his voice heard in Europe.

PARIS – Emmanuel Macron will host German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the Riviera on Thursday evening, hoping support from Berlin can bolster his standing in the EU as the French government edges towards collapse. 

Last week, France summoned the Italian ambassador in a dispute that reveals the differences between Europeans over the security guarantees they would be prepared to provide to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement.

Leo Litra and Lesia Ogryzko are joined by Élie Tenenbaum and Oleksandr Sushko to discuss June’s NATO summit—and what Europe’s security step up means for Ukraine.

The U.S. tariff saga has stolen global spotlight from trade tensions between China and the European Union, which are now heating up.

As global demand for critical minerals accelerates, Central Africa finds itself once again at the heart of an extractive race—this time driven by the energy transition. Thierry Vircoulon, Associate Research Fellow at Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center, and Coordinator of its Observatory of Central and Southern Africa, shares a sharp and sobering perspective. Speaking ahead of the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business webinar “Securing Critical Minerals” (2 July), he explores the paradoxes of resource governance, the rise of China, and why “clean energy” still runs on dirty politics. A must-read for those navigating the fault lines of global supply chains.

By bombing Iran alongside Israel, Donald Trump has performed a show of force aimed at China and Russia, explains the director of the French Institute of International Relations in an interview.

A webinar organized by the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe (ÖFZ) and the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), on June 25, 2025. The foundations of the post-1945 international order, long anchored by U.S. leadership, are shifting. Amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry, democratic backsliding, and strategic fatigue in Washington, the question arises: what if the United States no longer plays its pivotal role in international security? Simultaneously, the Global South is asserting new political and economic agency, complicating the old binaries of West vs. Rest. For Europe, this landscape is both a challenge and an inflection point.

Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is Iran's most recognizable opposition figure.