The Eurozone’s Vulnerabilities and Risks
The war in Ukraine has brought to light the European Union’s vulnerabilities.
Software Power: The Economic and Geopolitical Implications of Open Source Software
Open source is at the heart of the Internet infrastructure, of the software used by individuals or governments, and of the innovation processes of tech companies. Faced with threats to the security and sustainability of the open source model, governments are getting a hold of the topic, which is becoming increasingly geopolitical.
The German Government's Support Plan for Households and Businesses: How to Compensate for the Double Energy and Economic Shock?
In response to Russia's illegal attack on Ukraine, EU member states have issued a series of economic sanctions against Russia. This also includes moratoria on certain products, e.g., in the energy sector.
Europe-US resolve on China proves short-lived ahead of key meetings in Beijing and Washington
Neither Surveillance nor Algorithm-driven Consumerism. Toward an Alternative European Model for Smart Cities
Numerous smart city projects are emerging, guided by objectives of efficiency and improvement of public policies. All of them are based on intensive use of data and digital tools, but their concrete achievements take various forms. Some models are being exported and are becoming levers of influence, while Europe is still looking for its own path.
A Green-Blue Alliance in Motion: Pacific Island Countries and Europe Fighting Climate Change
The Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) were the first to ratify the Paris climate agreement in 2015. Indeed, for them, climate change has had very concrete implications for years. Islanders have seen the sea level rising, endangering the very existence of atolls. They have also experienced increasingly violent cyclones and other natural disasters, and must deal with multiple impacts of a changing climate on their everyday lives
The European Union Industrial Strategy: Reconciling Competition and Geoeconomic Challenges
The EU’s basic assumptions, on which it grounds its economic and trade power, are being steadily cast into doubt. The EU’s main trade partners, the US and China, increasingly set their sights on securing their supply chains, which may further a potential decoupling.
“Open” Telecom Networks (Open RAN): Towards a Reconfiguration of International Competition in 5G?
In line with the anti-Huawei diplomatic campaign of the Trump and Biden administrations, the United States has promoted an alternative: Open RAN, a concept defined by "open" network architectures. At the intersection of 5G geopolitics and standards, what risks and opportunities does Open RAN present for European technological sovereignty?
The EU’s Power System by 2030: Navigating the Crisis and Keeping the Decarbonization Cap (video)
Replay from Ifri's conference at the European Parliament in Brussels (October 11, 2022). The combination of the climate crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine makes the case for a much faster transition to a fully decarbonized power system.
Winter is coming: How to shield the most vulnerable and preserve the consensus on the war
Some of Europe’s poorest countries and communities would be hardest hit by disruptions of Russian energy supplies. With a difficult winter ahead, Europe’s ability to redistribute costs equitably and to shield the most vulnerable will determine whether it can preserve social cohesion and the consensus on the war in Ukraine.
U.N. Security Council meets on Nord Stream at Russia's request
Remarks by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, director of Ifri's Center for Energy & Climate, on the occasion of the meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Nord Stream at Russia's request, on September 30, 2022.
More Europe in the face of realpolitik’s return? French perspectives on 30 years of German reunification
The current geopolitical situation has disrupted the European and global order, which were both consolidated in the 1990s and have been key factors in the modern German model. The Franco-German duo is currently facing new challenges and it will have to respond appropriately in a time when the EU’s global influence is shrinking in the face of what some analysts call a “new Cold War”.
Reindustrializing France: Challenges of the Digital and Environmental Transformation
To succeed in the challenge of reindustrializing France, French and European companies must undertake a dual process of digital and environmental transformation, in a context of international competition.
RAMSES 2023. Europe at War
For its 41st edition, RAMSES 2023. Europe at War, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of geopolitics in today’s world.
Germany, the “Zeitenwende” and the Future of NATO
The Return of High-Intensity Conflict in Ukraine: Lessons for Land Forces
After twenty years of counter-terrorism, the Ukrainian battlefield marks the renewal of so-called “high-intensity” warfare. It constitutes a major strategic turning point, reversing the contemporary model of wars involving the West.
The German Industrial Power in Danger: The Double Shock of Energy Transition and Geopolitical Risk
The German manufacturing industry at the heart of the German economic activity has been confronted in the past years with conjunctural shocks, which question its existence on the German territory: the energy transition which hinders it in the short term to resort to fossile energy from Germany and nuclear energy; a questioning of fossile energy imports from Russia which keeps production sites of fossile energy and nuclear energy in Germany; the currently small capacity of renewable energy to satisfy the important energy needs of the manufacturing industry and the putting into place of alternatives to the importation of energy resources.
Fishing for Chips: Assessing the EU Chips Act
China, the United States, and the European Union (EU) are currently developing strategies for semiconductors aimed at financing R&D and the installation of new factories on their territories, in particular through subsidies. The EU Chips Act, announced in February 2022, represents a real break in Europe's industrial policy.
Is Macron’s ‘European Political Community’ a realistic prospect?
France’s presidency of the EU ends on June 30 with Emmanuel Macron’s new big idea, a “European Political Community”, hanging in the balance. This community would encompass EU membership candidates like Ukraine and possibly ex-member Britain. For some observers, the French president’s idea offers a way to bring countries into the European project while the long accession process takes its course. Others argue that Macron’s plan offers few clear objectives.
Governing in coalitions: Commonplace throughout Europe, an oddity for France
French President Emmanuel Macron will have to rule with only a relative majority in Parliament – an anomaly in recent French history, but a common practice in Europe.
The Direction of France’s Foreign Policy over the Next Thirty Years
A foreign policy points to a united society that manages its relationships with its surroundings while defending its own interests.
Preparing for 2050: From “Foresight” to “Grand Strategy”
China and the United States both have a “grand strategy”: Beijing aspires to be the world’s leading power in 2049, while Washington plans to remain primus inter pares.
European Defense: Acting in Time
This seems like a fitting moment to strengthen European cooperation on defense.
Foreign Policy: France at a Turning Point?
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?
The Energy Price Crises: A Reality Check for Europe’s Green Deal
On its path to carbon neutrality, the European Union (EU) will be exposed to growing energy price volatility and vulnerable to Russian and Chinese pressure on supply and demand.
Philanthropy and Migration in Europe: What Role for Foundations?
The 2015 “crisis” accelerated and/or intensified the involvement of foundations (in particular those from the private sector) in the field of migration. The crisis not only created a sense of urgency, but also generated a movement of public empathy that foundations were willing to accompany and amplify. It was also seen as a challenge to Europe and its humanist values, which foundations sought to defend in accordance with their own beliefs in inclusive societies.
Building European Strategic Autonomy vs. Turkish Strategic Depth: Macron's Diplomatic Gamble
Since coming into office in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been the loudest advocate for the development of European ‘strategic autonomy’, which aims at reinforcing the European Union’s geo-strategic independence. Asserting the EU’s role on the international stage, starting with its immediate neighborhood, directly clashes with Recep Tayyip Erdogan's long-term expansion strategy in several key areas.
A Strategy for Solving Europe’s Imported Deforestation Problem
The European Union (EU) is the world’s main trader in agricultural products, with imports totaling €142 billion in 2020. These imported agricultural products include commodities – palm oil, beef, cocoa, coffee, soy, etc. – that are responsible for deforestation in producing countries and thus create an “imported deforestation” problem for Europe.
Strategic Calculation: High-Performance Computing and Quantum Computing in Europe’s Quest for Technological Power
Computing power plays a key role in enabling machine learning, for scientific research, and in the military domain. Therefore, the race for computing power has become a key element of the US-China technological competition, and it is also a strategic priority for Europe.
The European Union: Caught Between the United States and China
The United States and the European Union (EU) are now both in agreement regarding China – long viewed benevolently – as a systemic rival in the international order.
RAMSES 2022. Beyond Covid
For its 40th edition, RAMSES 2022. Beyond Covid, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of geopolitics in today’s world.
Climate and International Trade: The Clash of Powers
The fight against climate change has a major economic dimension. With climate neutrality as their new objective, the major powers are counting on green industrial policy, and trying to contain the emissions related to their imports.
Is Europe a “Digital Colony” of the United States?
Edward Snowden’s revelations, the Cambridge Analytica affair and the digital transformation accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis have all shown Europe's technological dependence on foreign powers.
Europe/United States: 50 Shades of Dependence
Is Joe Biden’s United States (US) returning to multilateral, traditional diplomacy? This more open stance does not eliminate either its domestic problems or the divergence in interests separating the US from the Europeans: how will open diplomacy fit in with the priority of defending US interests? Will Washington organize a broad anti-Chinese coalition that the Europeans are opposed to? Will sanctions with their resulting effects remain at the heart of US strategy? Will the Europeans be able to assert their sovereignty in the key area of new technologies against the US giants?
CCUS in Europe: A New Role and Implications for France and Germany
A second wave of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects is under development, and it is much different from the 2000 wave. While Norway, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are at its forefront, France and Germany have major competencies, and many projects could be carried out in these countries.
The Changing Landscape of European Cloud Computing: Gaia-X, the French National Strategy, and EU Plans
Non-European cloud service providers host the vast majority of European data, which is viewed as an economic as well as a political problem. Gaia-X, European governments and the European Union aim to bolster the European cloud market while responding to data privacy and cybersecurity concerns.
Europe, Power and Finance
Finance has become an essential attribute of power. Its importance has grown given the substantial investments needed for the energy and digital transitions as well as the need to support economies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hypersonic Weapons: What Are the Challenges for the Armed Forces?
Hypersonic systems are becoming attributes of power for the states that design and implement them, at the risk of reviving an arms race.
Health Data Governance: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe, China, and the United States
The health crisis has triggered a tectonic movement in the recomposition of health data governance and protection models around the world, while accelerating the investment of large digital companies in the field of e-health.
USA/Europe: Seven Digital Challenges
As a consequence of the positive momentum in Transatlantic relations brought about by the arrival of the Biden administration, significant progress is expected on a range of key digital issues.
Ifri, a foundation recognized as being of public utility, relies largely on private donors – companies and individuals – to guarantee its sustainability and intellectual independence. Through their funding, donors help maintain the Institute's position among the world's leading think tanks. By benefiting from an internationally recognized network and expertise, donors refine their understanding of geopolitical risk and its consequences on global politics and the economy. In 2026, Ifri partners with over 90 French and international companies and organizations.
