IPQ Frontpage

Friedrich Merz wants to make Germany a leading middle power, but an assessment of his progress so far in foreign policy is sobering. 

Polling suggests that big majorities across Europe support common policies on defense, foreign policy, and trade, inter alia. And the latest EU summit showed how a more capable EU may come about.

Hungary has significantly expanded its links with the Organization of Turkic States, offering itself as a gateway to Europe. It could play an important role in the EU’s pivot to Central Asia.

US President Donald Trump seems prepared to bring Russia’s war against Ukraine to an end at almost any cost. The Europeans need to become more active players.

Germany’s relationship with India is slowly improving, and so is Europe’s at large. President Donald Trump’s torpedoing of US-India ties offers an opportunity to enhance this relationship even further. 

A year into her second term, the European Commission’s notoriously controlling president is attracting criticism for neutering her college of commissioners while blindly following the EU’s 27 national leaders.

Architecture has always been an expression of how countries see themselves. Autocratic countries focus on gigantic projects at home and abroad, while democracies question their architectural styles.

US unipolar power politics and US-China strategic competition do not serve Europe. It must actively promote an alternative. 

The new US foreign and security policy is often described as isolationist. It’s true that, under Trump, US aspirations to shape the global order are decreasing. At the same time, its activities in Europe are increasing: not in military terms, but in political ones.