A world chessboard chopped up by the vertigo of power...

As a Catholic from the Rhineland, Friedrich Merz is heir to the CDU’s Franco-German policy, from Konrad Adenauer to Helmut Kohl and Wolfgang Schäuble. While Franco-German rhetoric and reflexes are deeply ingrained in him, their results must nevertheless be put into perspective.

During his inaugural presidential speech on October 20, 2024, Indonesia’s incumbent president, Prabowo Subianto, iterated certain principles central to the philosophical foundation of the Indonesian nation. He noted Indonesia’s longstanding foreign policy of non-alignment or “bebas dan aktif” (free and active) and its aversion to military pacts.

The intensification of violence in Gaza following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 Al Aqsa Flood attack and Israel’s military response prompted a broader reassessment of global diplomacy. Longstanding geopolitical alignments were disrupted, and questions about humanitarian obligations, institutional accountability, and the limits of state conduct returned to the centre of international debate.

During his state visit to the United Kingdom (UK) last week, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, signed a joint declaration with Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, on nuclear cooperation between Britain and France. The Northwood Declaration highlights that while both countries’ nuclear arsenals remain sovereign, cooperation on nuclear deterrence can ‘contribute significantly’ to the security of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Euro-Atlantic region.

Over the past two years, the city of Adıyaman has made headlines for two major reasons: first, its devastation by the earthquake of February 6, 2023, which struck between Turkey and Syria, and second, its significant political shift following the municipal elections of March 31, 2024. 

Against the dual backdrop of the energy transition and the rapid transformation of the international order, the question of Western nuclear revival is being raised with renewed acuity. 

As Europe's main source of low-carbon electricity, nuclear power is a strategic asset for tackling climate and geopolitical challenges.