The Putin paradox: Five things Navalny’s arrest says about Russia
The events Navalny set in motion both indicate the urgent need for change and make such change less likely to happen
Commentary
The other contagion: Why the US Capitol attack is a warning to populists
From now on, citizens will understand much more clearly why it is said that democracies die bit by bit, until they suddenly succumb and it is too late
Poland’s misplaced American dreams
Much of the world is glad to move on from Trump – but Poles may still be hankering after earlier times
Low expectations: A year of renewal for the EU-Turkey relationship
Grand bargains are tough to achieve but, eventually, Turkey and the EU will have to strike up a working partnership whereby they cooperate on some issues and compete on others
The geopolitics of covid vaccines in Europe’s eastern neighbourhood
Many of the EU’s neighbours are hoping it will help them secure vaccines – leaving offers from China and Russia to flood in
The impossible stalemate: How the Belarus face-off could go on and on
Aliaksandr Lukashenka rewrote the rules to keep himself in power. But it did not succeed in 2020 – and the EU will not be able to remain a spectator to Belarus’s problems forever
How Russia and the West try to weaken each other
The West and Russia are both worse off for their efforts to try to weaken each other. This competition will only end when one side feels it is losing the race
The long year: Top foreign policy trends for 2021
Mark Leonard and Jeremy Shapiro predict ten bright and bold policy projections for the year to come
Europe’s China deal: How not to work with the Biden administration
The mere prospect of a strengthened EU-US alliance forced Beijing to make concessions to Brussels last month – a lesson on the power of global coalition-building that Europe failed to take on
The Palestinian elections: A second chance for the EU
The EU should commit to respecting the results of free and fair elections in Palestine, and to engaging with any government that emerges from them