New Transatlantic Tremors: Orbán Ousted in Hungary, EU Energy Crisis Response, Trump-Meloni Rift and NATO Under Strain. open.substack.com/pub/transatl...

Getting very strong Otisburg vibes. "But it also reflects a global reality in which governments appeal to Mr. Trump’s vanity in order to get American might on their side." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/w... youtu.be/qdvDV8tAXeo?...

US policy driven not by national interests but by the vanity of the king: "But it also reflects a global reality in which governments appeal to Mr. Trump’s vanity in order to get American might on their side." #neo-royalism www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/w...

🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈⚖️🇭🇺 A legal earthquake - CJEU finds Hungary to have violated EU law on multiple counts with its anti-LGBT+ legislation (as expected) but also for the first time in history, in an EU law-reshaping precedent, finds Hungary to violate Art 2 TEU in a self-standing manner.

1/@ossoff.bsky.social gives masterclass on how to stand up to neo-royalism. Name it: Kushner as princeling; call out the consequences: warps foreign policy/hurts average americans; fights for the alternative: democracy is not an abstract concept. Without it, a few dominate the many. More, please!

That was an alarming read.

"Middle Eastern investors laid out their plans in a video call to develop coastal property in Syria."

I januar interviewede jeg Georgetown-professor @abenewman.bsky.social om hans syn på den nye verdensorden. I går rådgav han danske partiledere om farlige afhængigheder og følte sig som i en episode af Borgen. Small world! share.google/8Kit8CfHhg0o...

1/ All the hallmarks of a neo-royalist lollapalooze. Syrian billionaire, ties to Kushner, sanctions relief, preferential contracts. This is not the rules based order or spheres of influence. Global politics is being run by court insiders. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...

More on my Borgen moment. The world is in the midst of a dual transition in technology and world order. Europe has agency to shape its future. nyheder.tv2.dk/politik/2026...

Yesterday, was remarkable career moment. Danish party leaders invited me and @adler-nissen.bsky.social to talk about the future of AI in a world of weaponized interdependence. It was literally like an episode of Borgen. Key message: Europe has agency but only if it takes decisive action and soon.

Today, Danish political leaders took a full-day break from coalition negotiations to hear lectures from (amongst others) @abenewman.bsky.social and @adler-nissen.bsky.social on AI, tech, and geopolitics. Pretty cool.

1. As people celebrate win in Hungary important to underscore key role of EU/transnational politics. The EU protected the opposition from direct attack and created a platform for opposition to gain political legitimacy In EU parliamen. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Welcome to neo-royalism…

This is tithing. #neo-royalism

Stacie E. Goddard and Abraham Newman’s neo-royalist framework not only captures the logic of Viktor Orbán’s rule, but also goes a long way toward explaining why it is unraveling. ⌛A read for the longest two days. @abenewman.bsky.social brettoninthewoods.substack.com/p/the-house-...

Neo-royalism “Trump also has little regard for the Westphalian notion that all countries have equal sovereignty. ‘It’s about dominance, you are not equal to us.’ Foreign leaders seem to be accommodating the new pecking order, most explicitly when NATO SG Mark Rutte referred to Trump as ‘daddy’.”

Reading up on royalism keeps delivering in the age of neo-royalism: Asked why he thought that starting a war was "going to be OK", Trump said, as per the NYT piece: “Because it always is.” Compare to what Geoffrey Parker has called Philip II's overconfident "messianic style of strategizing":

New research alert w/@gloriaxiong.bsky.social on internal politics of weaponized interdependence. Everyone wants a chokepoint for international advantage but for autocrats some pose more risks to their domestic stability than its worth (see Ant Financial vs COSCO) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

FT scoop - Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for laden oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. One official says it could be equivalent to $1 per barrel of oil www.ft.com/content/02ae...

Neo-royal fantasies in the works. The crown seeks to own the papacy. In the long run that rarely ends well.

US 'joint venture' with Iran on charging toll for Hormuz passage is peak neo-royalism. Enemies become friends if domination and extraction are on the table. You couldnt make this stuff up. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... www.the-independent.com/news/world/m...

JD Vance accuses EU of ‘interference’ as he visits Hungary to help Orbán win election

International politics used to enrich the insider clique...#neo-royalism. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

German conservatives calling US an unreliable partner. This is openly crossing a taboo that would have ended a career. Now, said on the record. This is a once in a generation transformation in the international system.

Why is the Administration going all in on Orban, who works closely with Russia and China? This is not about national interests but those of the neo-royal court. Great power balancing replaced by Court collusion. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

The Iran War has gobbled up a breathtaking amount of U.S. military capability vital for deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Neo-royalists acknowledge other peer neo-royalists: Canada edition. Trump said to have walked back Canada territorial claims due to King Charles reign over Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

In the unlikely event that anyone on here would like to pay good money to hear me talk about Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Arendt, Judith Shklar, and ideas about freedom (or knows anyone who might): roundtable.org/live-courses...

1/US administrations built the economic weapon. Now it is proliferating across the world. Without constraints weaponized interdependence will take a wrecking ball to globalization. direct.mit.edu/isec/article... www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/b...

Abe Newman and Henry Farrell's theory of Weaponized Interdependence stays winning.

Weaponized interdependence is happening

weaponizing interdependence was a bad idea. hat tip @himself.bsky.social @abenewman.bsky.social

#neo-royalism. Saying it out loud. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#neo-royalism. UK edition. Countries are regularizing personalist diplomacy.

Thing Trump doesn’t understand is that for a protection racket to work, the enforcer has to protect as well as coerce.

This is all too real. These days, satire is just news but in teaser format.

Hard to step outside of Iran right now. But global reverberations of anthropic decision remarkable. If US government can weaponize interdependence against its own firm, how reliable are these companies for the world. Supply chain risk isn’t Anthropic but USG www.fdiintelligence.com/content/98c7...

#neo-royalism. Hegseth edition

Latest Transatlantic Tremor: EU-Australia Trade Agreement, Turnberry Deal Approved, and Elections in Denmark and Slovenia open.substack.com/pub/transatl...

Germany's far-right AfD leader calls for withdrawal of all US troops (h/t @abenewman.bsky.social ). Several factors at work: 🧵

Interested in how the likes of Vance & Rubio respond to this Vance ghosted Olaf Scholz in Munich last year to meet AfD, while Rubio put lipstick on the pig with his own Munich speech in February, but pandered to similar forces. Counterpoint: Vance likely agrees on removing US troops from Germany

Huh. A Sunderweg.

After Trump courts the AfD for a year, they call for unprecedented removal of US bases from Germany. I have never heard a German politician utter these words in public. Now coming from administrations ‘partners’. www.stripes.com/theaters/eur...

1/ @martinsandbu.ft.com on the changing world order: "a more intriguing possibility is what political scientist Stacie Goddard and Abraham Newman have called 'neo-royalism'. www.ft.com/content/36b4...

Numerous leaders including Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan, India’s Narendra Modi, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, China’s Xi Jinping, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have embraced elements of a neo-royalist order. Neo-royalist orders neither begin nor end with Trump.

The decapitation dilemma: "...nothing seems more neo-royalist than seeing war through the prism of the physical destruction of a rival leader." www.ft.com/content/36b4...

Neo-royalism for the win. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/u...

The war has effectively created a new toll system for Iran. It will squeeze and extract with its own version of the bridge of death lingering for those that do not pay. youtu.be/0D7hFHfLEyk?...