Iceland has officially pulled out of Eurovision. Good stuff.

This comes as Taiwan makes a huge diplomatic push into Europe. I wonder if Taiwan's leaders realise just how badly this goes down with large parts of the European and global publics. Apart from the utter immorality of the stance, it's also very counterproductive to Taiwan's interests.

Let’s rephrase the question. “Whose judgment is worth more: government actors, making political decisions to achieve ideological goals, or the market?” According to Milei - the beacon of contemporary libertarianism - it’s the government. on.ft.com/4qLuOoO

I’ve wondered the same thing about Icelandic conservatives. Having screamed about sovereignty for as long as I can remember, they’ve now fallen conspicuously silent as their friends across the Atlantic are literally threatening to annex our closest neighbour by force.

Well argued thediplomat.com/2025/05/why-...

My latest from @thediplomat.com

A new piece by me in @thediplomat.com. I argue that, despite considerable speculation to the contrary, #China will not invade #Taiwan in the near future. In fact, the Trump administration's trade wars are decreasing that likelihood.

Shared Responsibility. creative done with @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social

How it started: How it’s going:

Ég hélt í augnablik að þessi fyrirsögn sneri að utanríkisstefnu Íslands. Og finnst það svo sem alveg passa.

Trade Wars Are Easy to Lose My latest. Escalation with China will be Trump's economic equivalent of the Vietnam War. The US will lose bigly. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... via @foreignaffairs.com

US two days ago: "We are starting a trade war with the whole world! Every country will come crawling to us pleading for mercy and deals. Also, we're poaching your most valuable firms." US today: "OK, sorry, we didn't mean that. But can you guys please join our team effort to squeeze China?"

two days ago, the Brits were padding themselves on the back for getting "better" tariff treatment than the EU.

For Taiwan, it's always nice to see its status as a country reinforced by being labelled as such on a prominent list with other countries. Well... except on this list. We could definitely have done without this one.

Maybe Trump has some positive climate change policies after all.

My favourite part is that Trump believes the US has a “champagne business”.

Ég skrifaði smá pistil um stöðu Íslands í alþjóðakerfinu í ljósi þeirrar upplausnar sem nú ríkir í vestrænu samstarfi. --- I wrote a piece on Iceland's international position and future prospects in light of the crisis in the transatlantic alliance.

Trump loves your cynical takes. But if you think existing norms are nothing but window dressing, then you don't understand why he is so eager to be rid of them.

Svo það sé tekið fram, þá er þetta EKKI ég. Það vill bara svo leiðinlega til að þessi gæi er alnafni minn. bsky.app/profile/ruvf...

Journalists: you can call it "Taiwan." Chinese Taipei is just a name cooked up to satisfy China in international competitions. The people are Taiwanese.

Interesting. In that case, I guess Singapore wouldn’t object to other ASEAN countries negotiating similar “exclusivity deals” concerning international companies and their headquarters. bsky.app/profile/fina...

One has to love the optics here. They thought capitalism would change China. Instead, we have Western consultancies drafting the CCP’s Five-Year Plans.

Happy election day Taiwan! 🇹🇼

the history of Iceland in a nutshell

Public art makes cities better and more artists should be involved in urban infrastructure design, which is a roundabout way of saying that we need more Parking Squids for bicycles 🦑 seattlearts.emuseum.com/objects/3898...

Very good and balanced piece. thediplomat.com/2023/12/taiw...

Hvernig það byrjaði: Staðan:

A few pictures from an open lecture I gave at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in Kaohsiung a few weeks ago. The talk was on Icelandic IR and the field of Small State Studies.