• March 30 2022
  Brexit

  Becoming ‘normal’ again is going to be hard for Britain

  The country’s friends hope the dismal state of its politics is a temporary condition that will pass

  
• February 23 2022
  FT Books Essay

  An Irish future — and the weight of history

  Three new books examine the violently fraught ties between England and its island neighbour and the prospects of unification

  
• September 30 2021
  Geopolitics

  The west is the author of its own weakness

  China presents a threat to the liberal global order but the bigger danger lies in the discrediting of democracy

  
• September 23 2021
  Geopolitics

  The French are right about the Americans

  Washington has always been careless of its allies in the pursuit of the US national interest

  
• September 16 2021
  Boris Johnson

  What Joe Biden should tell Boris Johnson about Northern Ireland

  The US president could be a candid friend to the UK and urge the prime minister to honour his post-Brexit Irish trade deal

  
• September 9 2021
  German politics

  Europe does not need four more years of ‘Merkelism’

  Germany must shoulder more of the burden of defending an open international system

  
• September 2 2021
  US foreign policy

  The US will not find security behind its borders

  Joe Biden has declared the end of America’s efforts at nation building, but the world is no safer for his retreat

  
• August 26 2021
  UK foreign policy

  Kabul retreat leaves the UK on a bridge to nowhere

  US indifference to its ally’s interests in the Afghan pullout underscores London’s dependence on Washington

  
• August 19 2021
  Afghanistan

  Europe had better face facts about the Biden doctrine

  The retreat from Afghanistan has seen the US draw a much tighter definition of its national interest

  
• July 29 2021
  Climate change

  Climate change is a global threat demanding national solutions

  The lofty hopes of the COP26 process will have meaning only if they connect with local politics

  
• July 22 2021
  Brexit

  Boris Johnson has made a Brexit offer the EU can only refuse

  The UK’s latest proposals for the Northern Ireland protocol are an attempt to tear up an international treaty

  
• July 15 2021
  Russian politics

  The brittle facade of Vladimir Putin’s Russia

  Democracies have been bent out of shape by rising populism but autocrats are more likely to crack under pressure

  
• July 8 2021
  Coronavirus pandemic

  The young are pawns in Boris Johnson’s Covid experiment

  The UK government’s plan to lift remaining restrictions will let the virus sweep through the nation’s children

  
• July 1 2021
  Brexit

  The German threat to the UK is indifference

  Boris Johnson’s government is still obsessed with Brexit, but its erstwhile EU partners have other priorities

  
• June 24 2021
  German politics

  After Merkel, Germany must admit the return of history

  Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, an assertive China and revanchist Russia have shattered the nation’s dreams

  
• June 17 2021
  Geopolitics

  Gangs replace rules in the new global order

  Joe Biden’s week of summitry reclaims US leadership of the west as the world returns to great power rivalry

  
• May 27 2021
  Angela Merkel

  Merkel has dealt Europe’s authoritarian leaders a trump card

  German chancellor’s refusal to halt Nord Stream 2 encourages Putin to act with impunity

  
• May 20 2021
  Brexit

  Joe Biden can help break Northern Ireland’s Brexit deadlock

  The US president should lend his authority to the Irish protocol by appointing a special envoy

  
• May 13 2021
  UK politics & policy

  The state takes control in Johnson’s post-Brexit Britain

  The prime minister has abandoned Thatcherism for the dirigisme of the UK’s European neighbours

  
• May 6 2021
  G7

  The west is in a contest, not a cold war, with China

  To restore their relevance the G7 rich democracies need to come up with a better offer than Beijing

  
• April 29 2021
  Scottish independence

  Boris Johnson’s Tories have given up on saving the UK union

  The Conservative advance in Labour ‘red wall’ seats underscored the party’s tilt to English nationalism

  
• April 22 2021
  European Super League

  JPMorgan Chase has scored a Super League own goal

  The failed plan to reorganise Europe’s most popular sport spoke to the arrogance of anything-goes globalisation

  
• April 15 2021
  Geopolitics

  Biden will not change Putin but is right to talk to him

  The US president is striking a balance between democratic values and pragmatic engagement

  
• April 8 2021
  US politics & policy

  Europe has a lot to learn from Joe Biden’s audacity

  The US president’s expansive economic strategy stands in stark contrast to the EU’s defensive incrementalism

  
• March 18 2021
  Globalisation

  Supply chain ‘sovereignty’ will undo globalisation’s gains

  The search for national ‘resilience’ can too easily tip into protectionism