Reading tips | Eurispes Observatory on International Issues – July 2021
- Janan Ganesh. Washington would prefer a China contest to the forever wars (Financial Times): Washington has no more complicated lobbying firm than the Pentagon. As such, the war games which predicts that an American route through China should be taken with more salt than currently exists in all the world mines. Every impeccable simulation of defeat is a tacit argument for more funding.
- The editorial board. Tout est possible (Le Figaro): Le vieux monde est de retour! En Paca, le Rassemblement national espérait qu’un sursaut de participation, symétrique de celui qui lui avait coûté la victoire entre les deux tours des régionales de 2015, viendrait cette fois inverser la donne en sa faveur ; le sursaut n’a pas eu lieu. Résultat : rien ne change. Sept régions de droite, cinq régions de gauche! Tous les sortants sont reconduits.
- Rana Foroohar. The US and the EU are stronger together (Financial Times): Recent EU-American relations are reminiscent of a couple of celebrities having problems with the red carpet. They smile at the camera and behave as if everything is going well, but personally, they’re not happy.
- Philip Stevens. After Merkel, Germany must admit the return of history (Financial Times): It was an American political scientist who popularized the idea that the end of the Cold War meant the definitive victory of liberal democracy. Three decades later, Germany clings almost exclusively to Francis Fukuyama’s end of the thesis on history. The departure of Chancellor Angela Merkel could be a moment for Berlin to take away the sincere hopes of yesterday from the harsh truths of today. The signs are not encouraging.
- The editorial board. The graveyard of empires calls to China (Financial Times): Afghanistan isn’t often called the graveyard of empires for nothing. Alexander the Nice, the British empire, the Soviet Union and now mighty America, all have been humbled of their makes an attempt to beat this fierce nation. Now China, the world’s nascent superpower, dangers falling into the identical lure earlier than it has even correctly begun its personal neo-imperial venture.
- David E. Sanger. Big powers punching in the dark on cyberattacks (The New York Times): The shift has been brewing for a decade, as Russia and the United States, the two most skilled adversaries in the cyber arena, have each turned to a growing arsenal of techniques in what has become a daily, low-level conflict. But at summit meetings, that sort of jousting was usually treated as a sideshow to the main superpower competition.