A researcher said that ‘the balance is shifting, including in countries such as Germany’ on the role of nuclear weapons in Europe’s strategic ambitions. 

France, the EU’s sole nuclear power since Britain’s exit from the bloc, was to unveil how it intends to use its atomic arsenal as a deterrent. French President Emmanuel Macron, in an address to military officers graduating in Paris yesterday, was expected to recommit to upgrading France’s capacity, at a time when NATO allies, who would ordinarily look to the US in a nuclear standoff, worry about Washington’s retreat from the multilateral stage.

France, the European Union's sole nuclear power since Britain's exit from the bloc, will unveil Friday how it intends to use its atomic arsenal as a deterrent in an increasingly unstable world.

An interview with Jon WOLFSTHAL, nonresident scholar, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Despite the political tensions that oppose Japan, China and South Korea, recent months have seen a certain rapprochement between Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. The first trilateral summit in three years was held in November 2015.

On December 31, 2015, ASEAN launched its long-anticipated Community with relatively little fanfare. This low-profile attitude surprised many observers: announced as a milestone and the signal of the member-states determination to bring regional cooperation “to a higher plane,” the launch was indeed modest, even imperceptible.

GVC Naidu is a Professor of International Relations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Francis Yi-hua Kan is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.