On July 14th 2026, under the scorching Parisian sun, French military troops marched down the historical Champs Elysées. Unusually, this year the military parade was opened by the thirty five countries making up the Coalition of the Willing, flying over and marching down the avenue in front of their respective leaders. What followed was one the biggest parades ever witnessed on Bastille Day, with 6.700 troops, 98 aircrafts, 31 helicopters and 315 vehicles mobilised, simultaneo

It seems an energy crisis is once again being manufactured, not only by war but by deliberate policy. The Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for a fifth of the world’s traded oil, is shut once again. The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1983. Russia, the world’s second-largest diesel exporter, has banned all diesel exports. And Europe heads into the winter with the lowest gas reserves in 15 years, while paradoxically purchasing record volumes of gas f

The NATO Ankara Summit, which took place over 7-8 July, returned the future of Europe again to the forefront of discussion. When considering the possibility of a reduced US presence in NATO, one trend that has arisen is a turn towards ‘minilateralism.’ Indeed, Galip Dalay of Chatham House wrote that “minilateral models point toward the architecture of a post-American European security order.” Minilateralism consists of small coalitions of states which possess shared threat pe

One of the reasons I became a journalist was to tell the truth. You could say I was under a fog of naivety and idealism, but I think that I truly believed in the best of humanity. Maybe bad things happened for so long because of an ignorant, and simple population, who just didn’t know the truth. Because if people had access to the truth then things would simply change, right? There would be no discrimination, no suffering, no war. Why would we allow it? Surely if people could

In the aftermath of the Cold War, scholars such as Francis Fukuyama argued that liberal democracy represented the final stage of ideological evolution, famously framing it as “the end of history.” However, what was celebrated as the final and best form of human government began to buckle under its own contradictions almost as soon as the Berlin Wall fell. “The end” became the starting point for a new political reordering, characterised by the rise of anti-liberal and, eventu

19 th Century Methods for 21 st Century Problems Following the abduction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, combined with the National Security Strategy (NSS) release in December of 2025, the Trump Era of “Gunboat Diplomacy” consolidated as the world watched on with morose horror. The Trump “Corollary,” as it were, is to represent an abandonment of international good faith and an embracing of the world's brutal dictators, Vladimir Putin and many more across th

One can only hope that the recent revival of 2016’s fashion trends and mood is ironic. Throughout the 2010s, British fashion was largely casual, often erring on the side of slouchy. From all corners of the nation grandparents feigned concern for the chilly knees of their grandchildren and teens sported hoodies in heatwaves: ripped jeans and logo heavy sportswear dominated the period. Vogue noticed, and they gave it a name. The 'casualification' of British fashion . The rise

While the United States and much of the world was focused on the fallout from the Epstein files, the second phase of the Gaza peace plan began . If the current Trump administration manages to deliver a breakthrough in the Middle East, it would be by far the president’s most significant achievement on the world stage so far. Talk of a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump may have died down, but his own desire for it remains obvious, as shown by his angry messages to the Norwegian prime

Across Europe, a striking consensus has taken hold. Quiz a passerby on the streets of Paris, Berlin or London on the state of society and you are likely to hear all too familiar lamentations concerning the declining state of both government performance and social cohesion. The cost of living continues to rise whilst wages stagnate and public services buckle, politics is brittle and the future looks more precarious than the past. This transnational belief , one which has been

Commonly known as the Western Anchor, Bulgaria has officially adopted the Euro and become a member of the Eurozone. The European Central Bank (ECB) can finally welcome Bulgaria as an official member as of January 1, 2026, carrying the weight of the anchor to new and more democratic heights. Becoming a member of the European Union in 2007 , alongside Romania, further solidifies the formidable barrier that aims to contain the Putin War Machine in Moscow. Leaving the Lev behind

The New York Times published one of the finest long-form features in recent memory last week. The piece was a thorough chronicling of the US-Ukraine relationship and its evolution over the past 12 action-filled months. Despite the US’s off-the-cuff approach to foreign policy, the brazen contempt it shows Ukraine and the rest of Europe is consistently striking. Pressure is barely exerted on Putin, with any attempt to end his barbarous actions feeling futile. Everything is stu

On the 5th of December Donald Trump’s second National Security strategy was released to little fanfare, nevertheless precipitating great global alarm, not least in Europe, as it appears to promote an archaic vision of a world once again carved up for consumption by superpowers. This National Security Strategy is very streamlined, at only 29 pages, compared to Trump’s 55-page 2017 equivalent. It even describes these old strategies as ‘ bloated and unfocused.’ This reflects

In the shadows, Putin’s intelligence services have been leaving civilian casualties, sabotaged infrastructure, burnt out buildings and downed planes in their wake for over three years. A ravaged Europe lies almost completely unresponsive. For sixty heartstopping minutes, a full-to-capacity Falcon 900LX jet circles above Bulgaria in a state of panic. The pilots and security detail are frantically scrambling over paper maps and charts, desperate to plot a safe route to the grou

Trump's second term has seen a seismic shift in how western allies interact, negotiate and do business with the United States. In...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion A study conducted by IE Universidad and Airbus - concluding that though nearly half of Western...

Trump has refashioned domestic and international politics. The U.S. is aggressively leveraging tariffs against both adversaries and...

At the meeting between the US and Ukrainian delegations in Jeddah on March 11, the early stages of a ‘durable peace for Ukraine’ were...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion On February 12, 2025, US President Donald Trump revealed that he had a call with Russian ...

As the year draws to a close, we look upon an almost unrecognisable Europe. From the collapse of the tricolour government of Olaf Scholz...

You could hear the sighs of relief from the Federal Chancellery halfway across the continent. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) edged...