by Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA
(2 May 2025) President Donald Trump is again loudly complaining that the US military bases in Asia are too costly for the US to bear. As part of the new round of tariff negotiations with Japan and Korea, Trump is calling on Japan and Korea to pay for stationing the US troops. Here’s a much better idea: close the bases and return the US servicemen to the US.
Guy Mettan,* Geneva
(25 April 2025) After Donald Trump’s peace offer to Russia caused turmoil in a warmongering Europe and raised hopes in the rest of the world, it is now stalling. The reason is simple: too many players, starting with the Ukrainians, the Europeans and the American warmongers, have an interest in the war to continue. Even if Trump and Putin were to reach an agreement and a temporary ceasefire were to be declared, they would not really end the hostilities. At least not for the time being.
by Thierry Meyssan,* France
(14 April 2025) In 2005, the French and Dutch rejected the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in referendums. But in 2007, the French and Dutch parliamentary assemblies adopted the same text, barely amended, under the name of the Lisbon Treaty. For the first time since the end of World War II, the French and Dutch ruling classes showed their sovereign contempt for their peoples.
by Prof. Glenn Diesen,* Norway
(14 April 2025) Cooperation in the Arctic has traditionally been largely immune to geopolitics. Even during the great power conflicts of the Cold War, cooperation in the Arctic continued for mutually beneficial collaboration and trust-building. This era appears to have come to an end.
by Pierre Lévy,* France
(4 April 2025) We can be grateful to Donald Trump for inadvertently provoking interesting admissions: when he argued that the EU was founded to “cheat” on the US, pro-European politicians cried out in outrage, pointing out that the bloc was created under Washington’s auspices.
by M.K. Bhadrakumar,* India
(21 March 2025) Through the past three-year period, Moscow claimed that it faced an existential threat from the US-led proxy war in Ukraine. But in the past six weeks, this threat perception has largely dissipated. The US President Donald Trump has made a heroic attempt to change his country’s image to a portmanteau of “friend” and “enemy” with whom Moscow can be friendly despite the backlog of a fundamental dislike or suspicion.