Triangles are often invoked in politics to account for particular phenomena. In geopolitics, triangles are especially appealing. In European geopolitics, there have long been several triangles of influence and power. Which one is gaining? Which is reducing? And how will these triangles jostle for command over the North European plain?
Thomas Renard and Sven Biscop sent me a copy of their recently published edited volume entitled ‘The European Union and Emerging Powers in the 21st Century’. This is my review of it.
The European Union has several ‘strategic partnerships’ with a number of countries around the world. These are frequently promoted as a benefit to Brussels. However, is this really the case? Are those relationships always in the European Union’s best interests? Or do they need some reform? And how does military power intersect with them?
British power is too frequently under-estimated. According to current projections – economic and demographic – the United Kingdom will be the most populous and productive European power by mid-century. How can Britain capitalise on its long-term strengths, rather than concentrate on its temporary weaknesses?
A ranking of the top fifteen countries’ aggregated national power for 2012. Who’s going up? And who’s in decline? The old powers retain their lead, but younger powers are rising fast…
After the Second World War, Britain became a ‘pocket superpower’, using its armed forces to amplify the military and industrial power of the United States. Recent conflicts have brought this policy increasingly close to the precipice, however, revealing a discrepancy between British policy and capabilities. How should Britain respond?
With the rise of numerous major powers over the past decade, has the time not now come for the European Union and its Member States to begin thinking about the geographic aspects of their power?
Alex Stubb, the Finnish foreign secretary, has called for a new and more dignified foreign policy to help promote human rights and democracy. But will it work? Or is it as fantastic as the approach the European Union currently adheres to? And in which case, is it also bound to fail?