Russia tries to tell its neighbours what to do. Then it gets cross with them for objecting to its interference. That, in a nutshell, is the story of European security since 1991. The latest row with Norway exemplifies this. Norway, it is probably worth pointing out, is hardly an example of—to mimic the Kremlin’s propaganda […]
Nato is not just about defence, any more than capitalism is just about making money. Donald Trump misunderstands both. His ruthless, zero-sum approach to business is mirrored in his foreign-policy stance, which emboldens America’s enemies and dismays its allies. That is the upshot of his first foreign trip as President, in which he cosied up […]
Don’t be fooled by Boris Johnson’s floundering failure to get the G7 summit to agree sanctions on the Kremlin. For all the negative reaction the Foreign Secretary arouses personally among his European counterparts, and despite the difficulty the Government has in articulating its approach, the outlines of a new Russia policy are taking shape in […]
The President proposes, but Congress disposes. That vital fact about the American constitution may have eluded Donald Trump in his career as a tycoon and reality TV star. But it is shaping his presidency now, as the latest snafu unfolds, surrounding an ill-designed and unpopular draft budget. Wise presidents work with Congress—not just with their […]
Remember the end of the West? That was what many commentators (including me) foretold when Donald Trump won the American presidency in November. Causes for alarm abounded. The candidate’s own heedless and contemptuous remarks about allies and alliances; the exotic and eccentric characters at the top of his campaign; the stench of Russian penetration – […]
“Hope for the best and prepare for the worst” is always a prudent maxim in security policy. But Donald Trump’s first, frenetic weeks in office have broadened the range of possible bad outcomes—and made them likelier. The administration wants to move fast and break things, repairing any damage later if necessary. It believes that mainstream […]
Barack Obama aimed to reset America’s place in the world. Instead he dislodged it. His soaring rhetoric — displayed in speeches in Cairo in 2009, or in Estonia in 2014 — could not outweigh the bleak realities of power. America is relatively weaker than it was, its rivals and adversaries stronger. Countering that trend is […]
“Europe” is not a monolith. It comprises several overlapping entities. There is “Freemovementland” – the passport-free travel area that stretches from the Greek islands to the north of Norway. There is “Frontlineland” – the countries which fear Russian meddling and aggression. There is “Euroland” – the countries which use the common currency. And there is […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. As NATO scrambles to beef up its defences in the frontline states and Western diplomacy is humiliated in Syria, the New Cold War is no longer a fanciful book title. It is fact. As the […]
The West, as we have known it for the past 60 years, died this week. On most issues — security, trade, climate change — Donald Trump has nothing in common with the people who run the other advanced industrialised countries. We are trying to expand and deepen the global trading system. He wants to clog […]
As NATO scrambles to beef up its defences in the frontline states and Western diplomacy is humiliated in Syria, the New Cold War is no longer a fanciful book title. It is fact. As the author of that book — much-criticised when first published in 2008 — I am glad, if alarmed, that my warnings about […]
