The war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is approaching a diplomatic crossroads. For months, Washington and Moscow have pursued talks that, in their earliest form, produced a perilous 28-point draft settlement. It triggered a political storm in Kyiv, across Europe, and even within the US national-security establishment.

By Thomas O Falk

When British voters handed Labour a landslide in July 2024, they were not seeking a revolution. They were seeking relief from Brexit chaos, from Johnson’s impunity, from Truss’s brief experiment in fiscal arson, and from Rishi Sunak’s oddly weightless premiership. Keir Starmer offered something almost quaint.

By Thomas O Falk

After a year of political turmoil, Dutch voters have returned to the pragmatic center. D66’s win under Rob Jetten offers Europe a respite, a test of whether coalition-style politics can still deliver capable governance in an age of populism. Europe’s weather vane has swung again, and this time it points back toward the pragmatic center.

By Thomas O Falk

Paris has seen barricades and coups, the theater of revolutions and plebiscites. Yet the most consequential French crises rarely announce themselves with cannon fire. They arrive softly, disguised as cabinet reshuffles and procedural improvisations. This autumn’s sequence, the resignation and reappointment of Sébastien Lecornu, can look like a farce. It isn’t. It’s a clinical finding.

By Thomas O Falk

Britain’s immigration debate is no longer about visas or small boats. It has become a referendum on who belongs and whether the state can still balance compassion with control. For the past decade, British debates over immigration were waged in the technocratic register: visa caps, asylum processing times, small-boat interdictions. That register has collapsed.

By Thomas O Falk

When Israeli forces struck Hamas leaders in Doha, they did not merely eliminate a few operatives; they violated the territory of a US-aligned ally, upended Qatar’s delicate role as mediator, and signaled that even the most carefully maintained diplomatic spaces in the Gulf are now battlefields.

By Thomas O Falk

In Europe today, an old strategic dilemma has resurfaced with an urgency unseen since the Cold War. Russia’s war in Ukraine is not merely a contest over territory, nor even a struggle for the future of one state. It has become, above all, a laboratory for deterrence itself. Yet, European capitals face a brutal question: …

By Thomas O Falk

Europe faces a strategic reckoning. Russia’s war in Ukraine has brought conflict to the continent’s doorstep, while the return of Donald Trump to the White House has made the transatlantic alliance uncertain. At the center of this crisis sits Britain: militarily essential to NATO, cautiously re-engaging with the EU, yet constrained by domestic politics and …

By Thomas O Falk

Germany’s recent move of halting the export of certain weapons to Israel to prevent their potential use in the Gaza Strip conveys a radical shift in its state policy. The move comes on the heels of Israel’s plan to expand military operations in the besieged territory.

By Thomas O Falk

Thomas O Falk

The Ukraine Peace Negotiations and Europe’s Future

Britain’s Leadership Crisis and the Starmer Dilemma

Dutch Elections: What The Hague Told Europe?

Is France’s Fifth Republic Witnessing Its Collapse?

Britain’s Battle Over Identity and Imported Populism

Israel’s Doha Strike: Fragile Alliances, Eroding Regional Order

Security Without America: Europe’s Search for Guarantees in Ukraine

Britain Between NATO and Europe: Power or Periphery?

German Halt in Arms Exports to Israel: A Pause or Pivot?

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