May, 2022

• 22 May

  China says it wants to expand BRICS bloc of emerging economies

  China wants to expand the group of emerging economies known as BRICS, in the first shake up of the bloc in over a decade, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday. Brazil, Russia, India and China initially formed the bloc in 2009, with South Africa joining in 2010. “China proposes …

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• 22 May

  Top U.S., Russian generals speak for first time since Ukraine invasion

  The top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, spoke by telephone with Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Pentagon said on Thursday, the first conversation between the two since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. “The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep …

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• 22 May

  The War in Ukraine Will Make It Harder to Manage the World’s Other Crises

  

  While the world remains fixated on the horrific human and political consequences of the conflict in Ukraine, there has been an undercurrent of discourse comparing the extreme attention to this conflict to the intermittent and waning interest over the past few years in civilian suffering and acts of aggression in …

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• 22 May

  America’s ‘Return’ Might Not Be Enough to Revive the West

  

  The United States is “back,” proclaims U.S. President Joe Biden, seemingly as often as he can. The coming week will show if the same is true of the West. At successive summits of the G-7, NATO and the European Union, Biden and fellow leaders will confront a dual task: reviving …

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• 22 May

  To Remake Multilateralism, Start With the Role of Africa

  

  In early August, I watched the frenzied U.S. exit from Afghanistan from my hotel room in Accra, Ghana. I was not the only one in West Africa transfixed by the events in Kabul. Though Ghana is some 7,000 miles from Afghanistan, the chaotic scenes from the Kabul airport played on …

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• 22 May

  The Russia-Ukraine Crisis Could Determine the Future of Sovereignty

  

  Beyond its immediate implications for European security, the current crisis at the Ukraine-Russia border highlights the enduring importance of state sovereignty as an ordering principle in world politics, notwithstanding frequent claims that globalization has rendered it obsolete. It also exposes the tendency of governments to invoke, dismiss or reinterpret this …

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• 22 May

  The U.N. Doesn’t Have to Be a Casualty of the War in Ukraine

  

  Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned rebuke to the United Nations Security Council for its failure to prevent Russia’s invasion of his country. “Where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee?” he demanded. “It’s not there.” Rather than taking forceful action to arrest or …

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• 22 May

  Conflict Trends Update

  GEORGIA Breakaway territory South Ossetia’s de facto president Anatoly Bibilov announced last Friday a referendum scheduled for 17 July on whether the region — which Moscow recognised as an independent state in 2008 — should accede to the Russian Federation. Bibilov was defeated in second-round elections earlier this month by …

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• 21 May

  Concerning ‘China’s Master Plan to Destroy America’

  

  China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.” In it, the authors “suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic …

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• 21 May

  La «sécurité indivisible», nouvel avatar du récit offensif chinois envers Taïwan

  

  Face à ce nouvel argumentaire diplomatique un peu vaseux, la nécessité d’une stratégie occidentale globale Selon la Chine, Taïwan demeure la 23e province chinoise. Mais en réalité, depuis 1945, l’île est de facto indépendante de la république populaire de Chine – qui n’y a jamais exercé aucun pouvoir politique, mais …

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