Media Interventions

Looking back on the last few weeks, a famous quote by Goethe (from his report on the siege of Mainz in 1793) came to mind: “Better to commit an injustice than to countenance disorder.” In other words, disorder engenders more injustice than it eradicates.

Evidence that the Russian opposition leader was attacked with a military-grade nerve agent has placed new pressures on the German chancellor.

Since taking in more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in 2015, Europe has stepped up border controls but still falls short on common migration and asylum policies.

Governments across the globe are increasingly focusing on the benefits of sustainable energy and Qatar is no different. As part of its national vision, the country is working to create harmony between environmental protection and economic growth.

Competing claims have left Ankara isolated. Its efforts to stall projects threaten billions of dollars in investment. Europe’s top diplomat smiled for the camera as he took a helicopter flight over the disputed waters of the island of Cyprus at the end of June.

Thierry de Montbrial, Ifri's executive chairman, et Françoise Nicolas, director of Ifri's Center for Asian Studies, talked about the global order in a post-COVID-19 world at a videoconference on July 15th ahead of the World Knowledge Forum organized by Maeil Business Newspaper.

Both in the US and in Europe, border control has become one central component of immigration and asylum policies with seemingly the same objective: preventing irregular entries of migrants and refugees. This trend has accelerated in recent years, with ever stricter border controls, more detention of migrants and refugees, the use of the notion of “safe third country” and partnerships with third countries, some of which now play a pivotal role in controlling the borders of their US and European neighbors, such as Turkey and Mexico.

What are the differences and similarities in the policies implemented in the EU and the US? What is their impact on the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees? In both contexts, what relative weight is given to the rights of migrants and refugees on the one hand, and to border enforcement measures on the other? Finally, what long-term consequences will the COVID-19 crisis have on border policies in both cases?

The European Union’s chief antitrust official, Margrethe Vestager, has made her name tackling big corporate fish in pretty unconventional ways. A ruling on Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which came with a seven-figure fine, argued free services weren’t always good for the consumer, while those on Apple Inc. and Starbucks Corp. deemed that low taxes were illegal state aid (though some judges begged to differ).

Slovakia's Foreign and European Afffairs Minister Ivan Korčok spoke in a webinar organized by Ifri, the GLOBSEC Policy Institute, the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe, and the School of Transnational Governance European University Institute (EUI) on June 16, 2020. He discussed the post-COVID-19 challenges to the European Union as seen from Slovakia, in particular the EU recovery package, MFF negotiations, the EU’s role in safeguarding multilateralism and in playing a bigger role on the world stage.

With American cities burning and the coronavirus still raging, killing more people than in any other country, President Trump also has growing problems overseas. He has never before been so isolated and ignored, even mocked.

At the start of the pandemic, Europe and China helped one other. Then the mood changed.