International Organizations and Multilateralism
Rhetoric on the crisis of multilateralism is frequent. International organizations (UN, WTO, etc.) remain no less important, while other forums (G20, BRICS, etc.) are asserting themselves.
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Charles III's United Kingdom and Africa. A Temptation to Withdraw
On May 6, 2023, King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. This briefing assesses the UK-Africa relations against the backdrop of the new King's discourse on Global Britain.
China/United States: Europe off Balance
As French President Emmanuel Macron (accompanied by Ursula von der Leyen) is on a state visit to China, some twenty Ifri researchers decipher the stakes of the U.S./China/Europe strategic triangle.
Freedom, EU, NATO: Ukrainian Society Has Made its Choice
The Ukrainian resistance should be seen in its long-term context, starting with independence in 1991, and confirmed by the events of 2014.
G20 Energy Transitions and Climate Finance Task Force Report
India is at the helm of the G20 presidency since the 1st of December 2022 for the duration of a year, with energy transition and climate finance being key topics on its agenda. In this context, the Gateway House put in place a G20 Energy Task Force to which Ifri’s Research Fellow, Diana-Paula Gherasim, participated.
Mitigating Geopolitical Risk – Japan as a Stabilizer in Asia
In the current tumultuous geopolitical setting, Tokyo may have a very specific, stabilizing role to play.
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.
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.
Support and conflict: transatlantic agricultural trade since 1945
Agriculture is an area of strategic importance, where relations between the United States and the European Union (EU) vary from solidarity to competition.
Ukraine: Between Two Peaces?
We have reentered the world of war. In its first special report, Politique étrangère offers a range of in-depth analyses of the military and political dynamics at work in a Europe that has just woken up from its dream of enduring peace. The direct confrontation between Ukraine and Russia has pitted two military and defense systems against each other, whose asymmetrical logics, strengths, and weaknesses we are discovering as the conflict unfolds.
The French Strategy of the Saarland. A German Federal State on the Way to a Living European Multilingualism
With the France Strategy, Saarland set out in 2014 to become an efficient multilingual German-French region within a generation.
Xi Jinping’s Institutional Reforms: Environment over Energy?
During its two sessions (lianghui) in March 2018, the National People’s Congress (NPC) announced China’s most important institutional reforms in the last 30 years. These changes occurred right after Xi Jinping consolidated his power and at a time when stakeholders working in the energy field were expecting more clarity on policy orientations.
Global Heterogeneity: Political Regimes and World Politics
One of the focal points of my writings has consisted of shedding light on the problem that arises from the heterogeneity of the international (or national) system, and the need for its components to reach agreement on the rules of the game and thus avoid collapsing into hostile blocs—as well as the need for the components of those blocs, the active units, in particular the political ones, to respect them.
Trade Wars: A French Perspective
The Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by the United States in March would, if applied, have little direct impact on the French economy, but rather point toward a broader trend of protectionism and economic nationalism and a widening gap in transatlantic relations that is likely to have far-reaching implications for France.
Africa and the ICC Going Forward
October 2016 presented a grim test for the fourteen-year-old International Criminal Court (ICC) as three Sub-Saharan African countries, Burundi, South Africa and Gambia announced their decision to opt out of the international judicial body.
Scientific Cooperation in the South China Sea: A vector for China's security diplomacy in Southeast Asia?
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Governing the Geostationary Orbit: Orbital Slots and Spectrum Use in an Era of Interference
Outer space, particularly in the telecommunication sector, is benefiting and becoming accessible to more and more actors. But with this trend comes also a reality that is every day more compelling: no meaningful development can be achieved without a clear, stable and predictable interference-free environment for the use and control of all satellites that depend upon ready access to radio frequencies and appropriate geostationary orbital slots to function properly.
The Lisbon Treaty and the Evolution of European Space Governance
Until the adoption of the Lisbon treaty in December 2007, there was no explicit reference to space in the EU’s constitutive documents. While the European Space Agency has been active in space since the mid-1970s, the Union’s policy remained without a legal basis for space activities. Parallel to the treaties’ evolution however, the EU’s competences never stopped expanding to new fields, bringing it ever closer to space and its various applications. Creativity and dynamic uses of these existing competences have allowed the EU to progressively interfere with the space sector and to get closer to ESA.
ASEAN-India Political Cooperation: How to reinforce a much-needed pillar?
India is one of Southeast Asia’s principal neighbors and there is certainly great potential for cooperation with the region and its institutional representation, ASEAN. But does India properly exploit this opportunity? Is Southeast Asia satisfied with the level of engagement?
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