A sense of calm – and perhaps even hope – is spreading across the world following Donald Trump’s election victory. Trump and his party have seized everything that matters: the Senate, the House of Representatives and even the absolute number of votes. Perhaps we are moving away from the political follies that have run rampant in recent years; perhaps we   …  

Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will remember post-war Europe, where a third of Germany was behind the communist Iron Curtain, along with Poland, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, partly Yugoslavia, Albania and, of course, Russia. But the countries of the West also faced political challenges. Spain and Portugal were dictatorships, Greece was ruled by a military   …  

The classic nation state is about ‘one people and one country’. It often talks about linguistic and cultural unity, but there are also aspects of ethnicity and religion. For example, Sweden is the country of the Swedes, a people with a specific ethnicity and language. In this case, it is also a Protestant religious affiliation, which has now been diluted.   …  

Apart from a few oddballs, few people are upset by the European Commissions plans to control and monitor our online activities. And since most things are now connected online, the regulations affect the bulk of our communications – emails, chats, video calls, but also regular phone calls. All conversations are monitored and filtered in various ways. Perhaps the average citizen   …  

Western Europeans have long harboured a kind of suspicion and sometimes disgust for everything east of Berlin. The endless steppes and the land of the mad horse people, uncivilised, inhospitable, debauched and remote. For various reasons we have repeatedly attacked and tried to tame the savage peoples over there. The Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the Second World War   …  

Many were surprised by the Swedish rush to join NATO, which took place without a referendum or in-depth debate. Why now, one wonders? NATO was formed as a defence alliance against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, when Sweden was not a member, nor was Finland. Was there no reason to think about defence alliances after the Second World   …  

We remember the Warsaw Pact from the Cold War, where the Soviet Union formed a defence alliance with the Eastern states occupied during World War II, as well as other Red nations. Today, Russia is not formally part of a larger military alliance, except with former Soviet states, but something like that could be created in the future, as a   …  

I will continue to discuss the concept of open borders, which was briefly mentioned in a previous article. We note that both leftists and libertarians are in favour of the idea. And the concept is well established in the minds of the ruling classes, as we see a huge number of migrants arriving in Western countries every year. And these   …  

The United States, Russia and China are recognised as major powers, along with aspirants such as Japan, India and Brazil. We also have significant regional players such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Australia and others. European countries such as the UK, Germany and France are often included. The question is, what about Europe? And our ability to exercise power,   …  

After numerous sanctions against Russia, billions in aid to Ukraine, and Western countries sending most of their arms supplies to Kiev, the war continues. And Ukraine is not making any progress, rather it is the Russians who are slowly but surely grinding down the Ukrainian army. Why are we spending so many resources and energy on this war? Ukraine is   …  

The geopolitical entanglements of the past year are beginning to unravel. It all started when the Russians grew tired of the Ukrainians not honouring the two Minsk agreements, which involved leaving the Russian minority alone and some autonomy. The Russians took a limited force and went in to “scare” the Ukrainians to the negotiating table. Hence the strange attack on   …