The nature of the US-China rivalry can be defined more dispassionately Out of the variety of global issues brought to the foreground due to the recent G7 and NATO summits, the US-China rivalry is among the most prominent ones. Biden’s vision to unite the West against China is starting to take shape through the multilateral tools that his predecessor disregarded. As this is unfolding, plenty of global headlines referred to the rivalry as the “New Cold War” between the USA and China. The greatest American rival is China nowadays. No question about it. The rising power from the East challenges th ..read more

The significance of the G7 as a western rather than a global forum   As the 47th G7 summit is in progress these days in Cornwall, England, discussions upon its significance are taking place throughout the world. A -distant-era- terminology about this gathering refers to an influential meeting of the world’s “biggest and richest democracies”. At the same time, an issue of the G7 relevance today, given the global and drastic developments of the previous decade, is still on the table. What’s exactly the case? To answer this question, one must observe the evolution of the political forum sinc ..read more

USA aims to confront the root causes of migration affecting its border, but which are they? US Vice President, Kamala Harris, made her first overseas trip to Guatemala and Mexico in a fact-finding mission -as her close associates put it- to address the root causes of US border migration. The Biden administration, after April’s highest migration flow spike in 20 years (more than 178,000 migrants), in an effort to revert the erratic Trump era hardline, seeks to implement a different approach to immigration policies. However, the chronic predicaments of the Northern Triangle region (El Salvador ..read more

The current state of democracy and human rights in Greece is alarming Greece drew international media attention earlier this week, as police brutality protests in Athens turned violent and the Greek PM appeared in a televised statement calling for peace and unity. Images of an injured police officer filled the media, two days after the beating of an innocent citizen by police in the neighborhood of Nea Smyrni, a southern suburb of the capital. This story though is only the tip of the iceberg in a country where democracy and human rights are deeply traumatized. On November 7, 2020, Greece enter ..read more

Biden’s ambition to restore the American leadership will go through a vigorous competition with rivals China and Russia January 2021 will be probably considered as a major landmark of American (and world) history in the future. For many romantic opinion-leaders, this turning point is an American imperial journey from destruction to rebirth. The destruction came when trumpism, after the stolen-election madness, conducted an alarming counter-attack peaking with the mob violence in the Capitol. The images that traveled around the world hurt badly the “strongest western democracy”. It was a cream ..read more

And European democracies cannot be reshaped into “coronavirus democracies” BY PANOS IORDANIDIS* The coronavirus pandemic is completely transforming our societies. From changes to everyday life and the halt of social activities to the damaged economies and the health crisis, this is an unprecedented situation that plagues the whole world. It’s a continuous “state of emergency”. But what happens with the conditions of the other “state of emergency”, the one the authorities impose? The coronavirus pandemic has also vast implications for governance and human rights. Both security and freedom ..read more

What are the most important issues of US foreign policy for Joe Biden in the Middle East? In the past four years, the Trump administration changed the US foreign policy fundamentally. The “America First” doctrine suggested the undermining of the US-led role in the international system by enforcing isolationist and unilateral practices. On the other hand, the newly elected president, Joe Biden, seeks to restore the international image of the USA in accordance with the previous status quo. In what Biden views as a restoration of “American Leadership”, he is calling for a return to the post-WWII ..read more

A new-born entente between Russia and Turkey exploits conflicts and promotes their regional influence The war in Nagorno-Karabakh is over. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to cease hostilities in South Caucasus. Azerbaijan will hold on to areas acquired during the conflict and Armenia will withdraw from adjacent locations. Out of the violence, between thousands of soldiers and civilians dead, as well as displaced people, Russia and Turkey are standing as true geopolitical winners. Russia acted as a mediator between the two warring sides. Now, Russian peacekeepers will be deployed in a region tha ..read more

Europe imposes new lockdown measures amidst the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic In the last few weeks, a surge of coronavirus reported cases is overwhelming Europe. Countries are seeking to curb the new wave with familiar methods. National curfews and lockdown measures are being imposed once again across the continent. Critics support that failures in management occurred after the first wave, especially when most of Asia has succeeded in controlling the pandemic. On the other hand, pessimists insist that COVID-19 disease is here to stay for more years to come. This is the current stat ..read more

Through seven seas of Trumpism and a jail of dank globalization, the show must go on BY PANOS IORDANIDIS* It was about the time. The drama of the American presidential elections is finally having a closure. Not all good dramas have a happy end, but this one fulfilled such a promise: Donald Trump is no longer a President of the United States. It took about four days for his downfall to be declared in one of the most divisive electoral battles in American history. His act was already set up before by trying to manipulate the highest courts. Now, he still screams for a “fraud” in the electo ..read more