"Constructive advice for bleak times"

U.S. allies are scenario planning for military abandonment by Trump. Should they double-down on investments in the U.S. market, try a risky hedge with China, or deepen ties with like-minded middle powers? My column, The Telegram, reported from South Korea economist.com/internationa...

On this week’s Insider show, Ed Carr and I are joined by @dsorennie.bsky.social and @aliceysu.bsky.social to assess China’s economic and geopolitical power and probe the country’s strengths and weaknesses. I hope you will join us on Thursday at 6pm London time

In different ways, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are nostalgic for 1950s politics. But Xi wants to use Mao-era notions of collective sacrifice to build a 21C economy. Trump has promised MAGA supporters a return of a 1950s economy. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

This should go on the next banner overlooking Schuman.

There is a battle for the soul of ‘the West’ between MAGA and European centrists. @dsorennie.bsky.social captures the revolutionary fervour in DC and what’s at stake. Trumpworld thinks Europe has betrayed the West economist.com/internationa...

Trumpworld’s loathing of Europe has become a charge that centrist leaders are “betraying Western civilisation” and don’t deserve to be defended by US. Shocked European officials fear a schism in the West, with Putin a likely winner. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

3 pillars of Trump peace-making are bluffing, might-makes-right deference to big powers, and putting profits before principle. Alas, from Versailles to Munich and Minsk, history is full of bad peace deals guided by those strategies. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

Is the world at “peak Trump”? John Bolton discusses American foreign policy with @dsorennie.bsky.social. Watch Inside Geopolitics now

In the latest Drum Tower podcast, I'm joined by former co-host @dsorennie.bsky.social to ask if Germany's big bet on China is turning into a costly mistake. We also reminisce about the VW Santana and hear from Johannes Volkmann, German MP & grandson of Helmut Kohl. www.economist.com/podcasts/202...

Trump’s USA is done with being a global cop. That is tough on allies who bet big on being America’s loyal deputy sheriff. My column, The Telegram, reported from Denmark, a “super-Atlanticist” ally turned victim of bullying over Greenland. economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Just spent week in Beijing talking to officials, scholars. Their msg: 2nd term Trump=opportunity for China. He’s not ideological, sees Xi as a peer, bungled his trade war and can stare down DC China hawks. But he’s unreliable, so a debate on how to use him. economist.com/internationa...

It's time to start to thinking about Christmas presents, isn't it? I have an idea, that costs just £22 a month. 📰 subscribenow.economist.com

Hong Kong’s plan to prove that a dynamic financial hub and “world city” does not have to hew to Western liberal values. My column, The Telegram, reported from HK economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Like it or not, Donald Trump is being rewarded for trade bullying-foreign firms are increasing investments in the U.S. and Canada’s PM just apologised for an anti-tariff TV ad. But long-term, America is weakening its hold on industries of future. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

Strong interview by @dsorennie.bsky.social on Europe's survival in a world of strongmen. Frank on China ("key enabler in Ukraine") and likewise (!) on EU member states (without unity EU's growing toolkit has little worth). The partnership-strategy invites more probing-e.g. what's in it for others?

Her uncompromising stances on Russia and China have ruffled feathers in some European capitals. But “Europe’s new iron lady” remains unfazed. @dsorennie.bsky.social sits down with @kajakallas.bsky.social in the first episode of Inside Geopolitics, streaming at 6pm London time

“Europe’s new iron lady”, @kajakallas.bsky.social, joins @dsorennie.bsky.social to discuss the continent in an era of strongmen. Watch the first episode of Inside Geopolitics now

As old diplomatic frameworks buckle and new global rules emerge, Inside Geopolitics brings clarity to the chaos. @dsorennie.bsky.social, our geopolitics editor, hosts discussions with leading policymakers and distinguished scholars

A period of pre-war. Good column on the mood in Brussels today by @dsorennie.bsky.social. Sober realism plus a readiness to break taboos. But the politics of it all remains tricky and money is tight. And there isn’t much time…

Turbulent times are generating hard-headed politics in the EU and NATO. My column, The Telegram, reports on a strikingly serious and grimly realistic mood in Brussels, an international capital wrestling with an age of strongmen. economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

As the US-China trade war roars back to life, the tariffs and disruptive export controls threatened by the two superpowers send a bleak message. America and China would rather be dominant than trusted as reliable trade partners. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

It’s a familiar/fair charge that many European govts spent little on defence, free-riding on US security. Lots also have the wrong sort of armed forces: expeditionary forces to fight alongside USA & peacekeepers. Now they must build homeland defences 1/2 economist.com/internationa...

Governments across the West are digging out Cold War manuals on escalation management and deterrence, as they navigate a world of ambiguous threats and reckless adversaries. My column, The Telegram. Can the West survive an age of brinkmanship? economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

China now accounts for 30% of all global manufacturing, or more than America, Germany, Japan and South Korea put together. A record surge of exports is alarming foreign rivals and governments. My column, The Telegram, on the juggernaut Trump can’t stop economist.com/internationa...

The U.S.-led West is struggling to deter China, Russia and other powers. Allies’ dwindling trust in America is one reason, but not the only one. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Interesting lessons from the Korean War for current 🇷🇺🇺🇦 conflict but I think the parallels with Dayton 🇧🇦 90's peace talks are most pertinent in this pragmatic #telegram from @dsorennie.bsky.social Continuation of the conflict: 'peace by other means' neatly sums it up.

Polls show Trump is unpopular in most of Europe and the rich world. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is positioning himself as leader of the anti-Trump progressive resistance. That’s not translating into greater international clout: why? My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...

Alongside the tech race for AI leadership there’s a global contest underway to set rules for AI governance. For all the Western predictions that Chinese AI will be hobbled by censorship and political control, China thinks its model has wide appeal economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Telling detail in @dsorennie.bsky.social’s column. “Fully 45% of American casualties [in the Korean war] occurred after talks began. Veterans recalled deadly night-time skirmishes on hills overlooking the floodlit negotiation compound.” www.economist.com/internationa...

Ending conflicts is hard, especially when belligerents use a peace process to advance war aims by other means. My column, The Telegram, on historical lessons from Korea and Bosnia for the Ukraine war - and how Putin grasps them better than Trump economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

José Ignacio Torreblanca, Senior Policy Fellow and Head of ECFR's Madrid Office, on the challenges Europe faces in protecting its democracy and markets from external influences at this year's Annual Council Meeting #ACM25 🔗 https://bit.ly/4fIuDW5

“Some of the clearest thinking about this swot’s predicament can be heard in Singapore, a paternalist city-state that has risen from poverty to great wealth with the help of hard work, diligence and lots of rules about civilised behaviour—like a giant prep school with its own army and airport.”

Singapore is the model pupil of the world economy. It grew rich by studying hard, doing its homework and riding the wave of late 20C globalisation. Now it fears a global economy where FDI and trade flows follow politics and tariffs set by Trumpian caprice. My column economist.com/internationa...

Delighted #TheRuleofLaws gets a mention in The Economist though the laws of war don’t feature highly. Tricky subject!

The post-1945 liberal order is crumbling. Time to study the long history of laws regulating war for alternatives that might work. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Our cover this week. economist.com/briefing/202...

Meanwhile, South Africa’s China-induced attempt to downgrade and push the Taiwanese representative office out of Pretoria has led Taipei to threaten export restrictions on its advanced chips…

South African leftists long to play the China card and tell the West to get lost. Centrist political & business leaders say Chinese trade and investment is too skewed in China’s favour to replace the West for now. My column, the Telegram, reported from S Africa economist.com/internationa...

What Europe means to China in a changing world – Matthias Hackler’s Cross Purposes: ‘Tellingly, [MSS-linked CICIR’s] Zhang Jian’s first point in this section is Europe’s market, specifically its consumption capacity, which he emphasizes as crucial to China’s development.’

Lots of juicy details in here about - Kallas-Wang post-Brussels meet in Malaysia - Wang Yi's lecture on Chinese vs Western museums - An important linguistic change in EEAS' docs on China - What the new EU budget means for Beijing

Some America Firsters seem tempted to let allies go nuclear, to let the U.S. off the hook for their security. Cold War history suggests that’s a grave mistake. My column, The Telegram, with lessons from Sweden’s secret cold-war nuclear weapons programme economist.com/internationa...

Big news in EU China relations this morning. The EU has passed its 18 package of sanctions after Slovakia dropped its veto. 2 Chinese banks to be listed. In Brussels this month, Wang Yi repeatedly warned Kallas that China would retaliate if this happened. Watch this space...

India has done brilliantly by balancing America, China and Russia. But the second Trump term has Indian policy-makers off balance. My column, The Telegram, reported from Delhi and Mumbai. Cynical realism won’t save India from Donald Trump economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

HM the King; Idris Elba; something called Youth Futures Hubs, a pilot of "new multi-agency Prevention Partnership Panels" and a very, very small amount of money. If there is such a thing as Starmerism, this is it.

Some 120 years on, few remember the outrage provoked by the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th American president and, to his critics, an America First bully. That fuss offers lessons for the present

If Presidents Trump, Xi and Putin were to carve the world into spheres of influence, they would be unstable and unsafe. My column, The Telegram, on how the world has changed since the 1880s, and why Donald Trump is no Teddy Roosevelt economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

The Telegraph obit for Lord Lipsey is excellent and contains this corker www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...

An honour to moderate a crunchy, slogan-free and rigorous China panel at #Aspenideas with @mikefroman.bsky.social Elizabeth Economy and Jim Baker, formerly dir. Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon. www.aspenideas.org/sessions/the...

Might useful, growth-promoting reforms be advanced by bad-faith claims about “white genocide” in South Africa? Moderate political and business leaders hope so. My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa... from The Economist