We have to await an analysis of the result of the Irish referendum in order to understand the reasons for the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. They will no doubt include: the incomprehensibility of the treaty lack of confidence in the (Irish) political class belief that would affect Irish neutrality belief that would lead to [...]

Here we go again. There are no new lessons to be learned. We already knew that the referendum is not an appropriate mechanism for approving a complex treaty. We already knew that the European Union has not successfully been ‘sold’ to its citizens. We already knew that a veto is unacceptable in a union of [...]

In the past, foreign policy has always been seen as an extension of domestic policy. Today, however, the distinction is becoming blurred. The main domestic challenges facing society are also global: climate change, terrorism, drugs, energy security. One day’s exposure to television in Washington is enough to show how ill-equipped Americans are for foreign policy, [...]

The media coverage of the secret Obama-Clinton meeting and the concession speech of Hillary Clinton was all-consuming. There are many programmes on why the next US President may be black and why a woman could have been president. And there are still over four months to go to the Election with the real campaign only [...]

Kouchner warned the Irish that a ‘no’ vote in tomorrow’s referendum on the European Union’s reform treaty would be regarded with “gigantic incomprehension”, adding that it would be “very, very awkward if we couldn’t count on the Irish, who themselves have counted a great deal on Europe’s money”. What is incomprehensible is for the French [...]

Li Datong, a Chinese journalist and former editor of “Bingdian”, a weekly supplement of the important “China Youth Daily”, argues in a hard-hitting article published on 16 May in Chinese, that the Chinese government’s response to recent events betrays a deficit in the way the country is ruled. The Chinese government’s fury at the Olympic [...]

Jean Monnet in 1954 said: “our countries are too small for today’s world, particularly compared to Russia and America today and China and India tomorrow.” Half a century later, this truth is obvious, and yet, the EU 27 still cannot get its foreign policy act together. My colleague Max Kohnstamm, the last survivor of the [...]

The Financial Time’s review of Robert Kagan’s new book, “The Return of History and the End of Dreams” prompts me to comment on the Kagan thesis. He is the author of the John McCain proposal to set up a “league of democracies” that would be led by the US but would reassuringly “complement” rather than [...]