Category: Blogs

America First Also Means Europe First

By Louis Golino

The NATO summit in Brussels on May 25 was an important opportunity for US President Donald J. Trump to turn his recent statement about the Alliance no longer being obsolete in his opinion into real progress in transatlantic relations. However, Trump’s boorish behavior at the summit, his failure to endorse the Alliance’s mutual defense clause, […]

Will Ukraine’s New Supreme Court Be Any Different?

By Mykhailo Zhernakov

Every successful reform needs the right legal framework, the right institutions, and the right people. Take NABU—Ukraine’s newly established National Anticorruption Bureau. This spring it managed to arrest the notorious head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, and one of the country’s top political moguls Mykola Martynenko—a task no other law enforcement body would […]

How Putin Accidentally United Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, but it took the outbreak of war in 2014 to forge it into a fully-fledged nation. As is often the case with major historic shifts, this change was not immediately apparent at the time. Even now, three years on, it may come as news to the millions of […]

Former Presidential Candidate Khaled Ali Referred to Trial Amid Wave of Arrests in Egypt

By Dalia Rabie

Lawyer and former presidential candidate, Khaled Ali, was sentenced to trial Wednesday in light of a complaint filed against him for public indecency. Ali was summoned for investigation and detained overnight on Tuesday amid a wave of arrests targeting members of political parties and groups over the past week.

Why the 2017 Iranian Election Matters

By Mariam Elatouabi

 The 2017 Iranian presidential election could be mainly summarized by the many images of Iranians lining up outside the polling stations and the overall enthusiasm and fervor sparked by the short yet dynamic campaign and re-election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani. Hassan Rouhani won a second term with fifty-seven percent of the votes, almost seven […]

Does the Road to Energy Dominance Run Through Paris?

By David L. Goldwyn

US President Donald J. Trump’s administration aims to position the United States for “energy dominance” as a leading exporter of oil and gas. So far, this vision of US energy dominance has assumed that policies favoring reduced emissions are a hindrance rather than an opportunity.  In fact, the nation’s ability to expand production and compete […]

Creating a More Competitive Energy Market in Europe

By Valerio Zanovello

One of the key characteristics—and potential vulnerabilities—of the European energy market is its dependence on imports. The European Commission has drawn up a list of 195 key energy infrastructure projects, known as Projects of Common Interest (PCI), to create a more competitive energy market and alleviate this dependence. Some of these projects could considerably improve […]

This is Why Africa Matters to the United States

The cuts to foreign aid proposed in US President Donald Trump’s new budget, if passed, would drastically diminish US influence in Africa, threaten US security interests, and make way for countries like China to fill the void, according to a former White House official. “We can’t be ceding this space to China and to other […]

TRADE in ACTION – May 25, 2017

By Global Business & Economics Program

This week in TradeinAction: In the United States, President Trump released his budget for the fiscal year 2018. Meanwhile in Europe: The Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in Taormina, Italy starts tomorrow, and Chancellor Merkel meets with former President Obama in Berlin and then with President Trump in Brussels today

Putin, Not Trump, Has Led NATO Members to Increase Defense Spending

By Kelly Russo

While US President Donald J. Trump admonished the United States’ NATO allies at a meeting in Brussels on May 25 for not spending enough on collective defense, it is the threat posed by Russia that has been a bigger factor in galvanizing the allies’ defense commitments, according to a former deputy secretary general of NATO. […]