Rubrics » UNCOVERstory
Between Continuity and Change: What a Trump Presidency Will Mean to Europe and the Transatlantic Link
President Trump’s rise to power will remain controversial for a long period of time. His path to the White House has been too unconventional and marked by the breach of most of the implicit rules of the US Presidential campaigns. Like most of the radicals entering the political arena, he made his way up into the headlines resorting to an unprecedentedly provocative kind of communication. He played his game asymmetrically, turning his opponents’ best qualities, such as experience and balance, into their worst vulnerability, and assigning to social media, and particularly Twitter, the task of mobilizing support. More
Trump and the New NATO Paradigm
A specter is haunting NATO while Moscow dreams sweetly. Both are consequence of the new Republican President’s latest statements. This could lead us to believe that NATO might be under threat, not from the outside as one might expect, not from terrorism or from a resurgent Russia’s expansionist policy, but from the inside. This threat comes from the policy and perspectives that the US Administration seems to adopt regarding the essence of the Euro-Atlantic relation that NATO represents and its decisive role in defending and preserving its Members’ interests. More
Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and the BRICS of Contention
Anyone looking for this “couple” on the internet will find almost 30 million articles indexed on Google [1], which means that interest in the relationship between the leaders of the big A-bomb powers is huge. This number grows every day and will surpass one billion by the end of 2020. We can distinguish between three types of analyses about the relations between those leaders. More
What Does the Trump and Putin Relationship Mean for Asia?
The US vote in favour of President-elect Donald Trump was a shock for Russian leaders, though a delightful one. According to public opinion surveys, Russia was the only country in the world that preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton. Post-election, the Kremlin argued that Trump and Putin’s views on major issues were very close and expressed cautious optimism that Russia–US relations could improve. In turn, Trump has repeatedly said that he would like “to get along with Russia”. More
The Kissinger Era Consensus on China is Gone with the Wind!
In 2016, the global situation was characterized by chaos, changes of the international order through conventional warfare and through a new type of war – the hybrid war – while, for the first time in its history, the EU block’s survival was being openly discussed. Nevertheless, what was most frightening in the EU is the fact that, with far-right, anti-EU politicians in France and the Netherlands riding high in the polls ahead of elections in 2017, there is widespread speculation that Britain’s departure may be the start of a great unraveling of the European Union. There was also the added pressure of a resurgent Russia against former soviet countries and against the EU unity. The process of quantitative change seems to have reached the critical point, proceeding into the stage of qualitative change, and the Trump phenomenon is one of them. More
Trump and Erdogan: Will It Be a Short Honeymoon?
Trump’s electoral victory was viewed with cautious enthusiasm in Ankara, which looks forward to a reset of the United States – Tukey axis, after the policies of the previous Obama Administration contradicted several of the interests of the current Turkish political leadership.Even now, with the entire roster of Donald Trump’s cabinet known, the particulars of his foreign policy remain unpredictable, especially with regards to a region he is likely unfamiliar with and whose specificities he is likely to misunderstand. Many of Trump’s speeches on the campaign trail have been self-contradictory with regards to the region. For instance, he supported working with Iran to address the Daesh menace and then followed up on this with hints that he wished to renegotiate or even suspend the nuclear deal. More
The Trump Administration’ Policies towards Iran
The United States of America’s foreign policy is undergoing a significant overhaul since President Donald Trump entered office. Especially with regards to the Middle Eastern affairs, many aspects should be considered before a new policy is adopted since, after several unsuccessful interventions in the region, the implications of such expeditions should finally be assessed and used to inform future policies. The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the Bush Administration unleashed chaos in the broader Middle East, which was notably accelerated by the Arab revolts of 2011 – the so-called Arab Spring. There were two major trends: the dismantling or near collapse of the Arab republics (Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen) and a more visible sectarian rhetoric that deepened the gap between Iran (the Shiite powerhouse) and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf (with Saudi Arabia at the forefront, as the Sunni powerhouse). Such events reinforced the sectarian tensions and fueled the extremism that plagues the whole Middle East. More
From Urbi to Orbi and Back Again
The presidential elections in the US have become a global political spectacle, watched with bated breath by German executives, Chinese billionaires, the Pope in Rome, Wall Street traders, NATO allies and Russian journalists. The stakes are high for everybody. Donald Trump’s victory and uneventful transition into the White House may give people a chance to resettle their nerves and take stock of where they are politically in this “brave new world”. More
Trump’s Approach to Sub-Saharan Africa
With the State of The Union address, the 45th US President will jumpstart his administration in full throttle. Pundits will take to speculating on the major directions of domestic and foreign policy to be followed by the Republican head of state. While China, Russia and the Middle East take the center stage, other geopolitical areas seem to fall under the President’s radar. More
Security Risks for Eastern Europe in the Trump Era
Many Eastern European (EE) countries consider themselves insecure, stemming from Russian assertiveness, the possibility of a US-Russian “plot” and the inability of Europe to defend itself in the military sphere. These feelings are simultaneously both rational and irrational.Surely, the situation which had been developing in and around Ukraine since 2014 has destabilized the whole European security architecture. The war is taking place not far away from European borders but directly at the EU’s doorstep. The deepening mistrust in relations between Russia and the West spilled over into their structural contradictions on such issues as conflict management in Syria, military activities in the Baltic Sea, US anti-missile defense etc. Europe is suffering now from an absence of predictability, which was not the case after the demise of the Soviet Union and even during the Cold War with its neorealist strategic culture. More
Our Priority Is to Present Donald Trump with a Romanian Project
The best answer to the question of how the complex relationship between Romania and the US will evolve during the term of the new President will be given either during the highly desirable state visit of the President of Romania to Washington DC, or during President Trump's possible visit to Bucharest. In order for the state visit of the Romanian president to become a realistic point on the Presidency’s Agenda at Cotroceni Palace, the Romanian diplomacy, starting from the current Foreign Minister and ending with the Romanian Ambassador to the US, should initiate a series of contacts overseas. They would impart the understanding, first to the State Department and then to the White House, that such contacts will have a significant echo on the Eastern border of NATO, where the Russian imperial pressure is constant and the Euro-Atlantic community is on the verge of implosion. More
Economic Goods and Political Gods: On Civilization’s Cultural Tectonics
In the hot peace after the “cold war”, a plethora of memories start haunting the minds of peoples awakened from blurry “isms” to old identities. Crosses, crescents, stars, tunes, tales, and togs, anything that can be symbol of the cultural self, start filling the new societal vacuum with the deep creed that nothing could be a better bond than the blood you are born with, flowing through your veins, and nothing could be a more poisoned tie than all the cunning ideologies, which are frivolous summer romances inclined to violent divorces. More