Opinions
Editor-in-chief Alessandro Cassieri
At this stage in history that, unlike what was indiscreetly said at the end of the Cold War, has not reached its end, Opinions aims to become a place for reflection in the face of the complexity of the international picture.
The pace of news is now accompanied by the pace of comments. Dissemination of viewpoints revives the chorus that is both cacophonous and conformist.
Opinions opposes this scheme to another one, based on the authors’ competence. Those who are free to express themselves outside of any ideological grid and offer, with the originality of their contributions, a credible and thoughtful analysis of modern times.
Opinions #2/25
Canada, which holds the G7 presidency in 2025, is left without a leader, a prime minister, and a government. Descendant son Justin Trudeau, heir to the prime minister who remained in office for 16 years, resigned after two five-year terms in power because of several minor scandals related to the [...]
Opinions #1/25
New Year’s Eve, good intentions. As Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, hoped in Forbes nearly a decade ago. The laudable goal is simple: before we accuse others, we should avoid committing the same “sins” we are protesting against. He was referring to the [...]
Opinions #52/24
Rome is returning to its status as the capital of the world. With the opening of the Holy Door, the beginning of the Jubilee, some thirty million tourists are expected to arrive. These days, everything favors making the altar of Peter the perfect pulpit for Pope Francis’s ecumenical message of [...]
Opinions #51/24
Ten years ago, Syria was a humanitarian testing ground for Europe. Millions of people are fleeing the war. A war provoked by the great mistake that was the Arab Spring. It was 2011, and the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, then Gaddafi in Libya and Mubarak in Egypt seemed [...]
Opinions #50/24
Like the frogs in Aesop’s fable, the national leaders of many countries are getting restless. They know they are running out of time and that the one who will set them straight is coming soon. Starting next January 20. That’s when it will be understood what the chosen one, and [...]
Opinions #49/24
Same theater of war, same actors on the battlefield. Ten years later. It is still Syria, or rather the Levant, a territory of clash that is a concentration of proxy wars. The target of overthrow today, as it was then, is the government of Bashar al-Assad. A regime that Washington [...]
Opinions #48/24
“To persist [in making mistakes] is diabolical,” said the ancient Romans. And we can say this today, despite the stance of many Western politicians and freethinkers on the collegial decision of the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) to issue an international arrest warrant for Benjamin [...]
Opinions #47/24
Donald Trump wins the American election in a landslide, German Chancellor Scholz calls Russian President Putin, and suddenly the European establishment is in for a shock. And finds itself without any certain reference points. In the classic Atlanticism of the Biden era, conservatives and progressives of the Old Continent found [...]
Opinions #46/24
Attention all users of the airwaves and the internet. I mean, all of us. We are entering the most acute phase of media turbulence. The ongoing wars are on the eve of a tipping point. And the trial balloons, the runs forward, the hoaxes that already (also) characterize these conflicts [...]
Opinions #45/24
No ifs or buts. Bigger than expected. And with no complaints. Donald Trump won, marking a decisive step in the political history of the United States. Not only because, for the first time since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century, a former president who was defeated in the previous [...]
Opinions #44/24
The October 26 vote in Georgia, won by a party that wants to maintain privileged ties with Moscow, could mark the end of the cycle. It started right in Tbilisi over twenty years ago. It was the time of the Revolution of Roses that led to the departure of Eduard [...]
Opinions #43/24
This was supposed to be the decisive moment. In order to change the Constitution and bring Moldova into the sphere of Western alliances, everything was aimed at a popular referendum. Because “Article 11 of the Constitution expressly enshrines the imperative norm that the Republic of Moldova declares its status of [...]
Opinions #42/24
In his own way, Netanyahu has created a masterpiece. He was a prime minister on the brink, challenged on the streets for his growing authoritarian impulse, challenged by both the opposition and his own majority. That was a little over a year ago. Today, this prime minister, who seemed to [...]
Opinions #41/24
It’s been more than a year since another war in the Middle East began and risks widening; less than a month to go until the US election, the most tense and polarized in history. In the background is the bloodiest conflict on the European continent since the end of World [...]
Opinions #40/24
Here it is, before our eyes, the New World Order. It was supposed to be a world capable of coexistence at all latitudes once it was freed from the grip of nuclear bipolarism. When the Wall fell, the USSR collapsed, communism disintegrated, and all possible enemies disappeared from the horizon, [...]
Opinions #39/24
A tough American week for Ukrainian president. Anticipating the title, he was finally able to present his plan to end the war with Russia. His main interlocutors were the occupants – current, former, and future – of the White House. And that was already a problem. Zelensky has concomitantly lost [...]
Opinions #38/24
“The difficult thing is not to start a war, but to end it”. Henry Kissinger displayed this wisdom not without a note of self-criticism having faced more than one conflict. The prince of twentieth-century American diplomacy attracted few supporters given the military and bellicose present of his Euro-Atlantic world. However, [...]
Opinions #37/24
It could be another bitter September for Vladimir Zelensky. A year ago, in these days, he had to state the failure of the widely announced spring counteroffensive. The move was meant to lead Kiev’s forces to recapture Donbass and Crimea after they pushed Moscow’s soldiers back across the border. The [...]
Opinions #36/24
Declared success, frightening defeat. Germany archived the results of the vote in the states of Thuringia and Saxony with confidence that the political phase was coming to an end. At the national level, the “traffic light” coalition led by Chancellor Scholz, fragile and turbulent from the start, seems doomed to [...]
Opinions #35/24
There is a curious analogy between Zelensky’s and Netanyahu’s strategies. Both conflicts, close to Europe, have as their common denominator America’s modest interest in defusing them: see the revelations appearing in April and May 2024 in the Foreign Affairs magazine and the New York Times about the agreement reached in [...]
Opinions #34/24
The American election campaign is entering a crucial phase with a flurry of news regarding the two candidates. Kamala Harris inherited the role of Democratic Party leader from the trembling hands of Joe Biden in the blink of an eye, in a flood of enthusiastic commentary from her supporters, her [...]
Opinions #33/24
Conceived three thousand years ago in the cradle of Western civilization, the Olympic Truce has not always achieved its goal. And this existed already in antiquity. In recent times – it was 1992 – the (seeming) atmosphere of calm after the end of the Cold War prompted the International Olympic [...]
Opinions #32/24
A lot has been written and said about China and Russia in the last two years. Putin and Xi Jinping’s alliance was considered “temporary.” Because supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine was counterproductive for Beijing. Because the risk of US sanctions (and thus the G7 bloc) would force Xi [...]
Opinions #31/24
Expansion of the conflict is threatened and increasingly unlikely. With the usual actors accusing each other of genocide. Evoking the worst ghosts of the past, from Hitler to Saddam Hussein, and their tragic fates. It is the Middle East, this sector that has been tense for decades over the unresolved [...]
Opinions #30/24
International politics is indeed experiencing turbulent weeks. The concentration of over fifty pre-election consultations scheduled for this year predicted a lively period, but the present offers us much more. In the West, that is, in the USA and Europe, all principal leaders are facing new challenges as they try to [...]
Opinions #29/24
“Not an inch more.” Two and a half centimeters, or even less, and we’d already be commenting on the assassination of Donald Trump. Instead, he was saved by a miracle, because the sniper who shot him knew how to shoot, big time. Therefore, this is an attempt on the life [...]
Opinions #28/24
It was supposed to be a traumatizing move to get out of political instability. In the second year of his second mandate, with the second government resting on an uncertain and random majority, Macron played a counterattack to block the advance of right-winger Marine Le Pen, who won European elections [...]
Opinions #27/24
The fact that 2024 would become the year of many important electoral contests was known. That there would be a concentration of votes within a few weeks in early summer was not. Nor was it possible to imagine the sensational impact of the results concentrated in a few days. We’ll [...]
Opinions #26/24
The two traditional party candidates agree with each other and with a couple of media outlets, excluding independent candidates, particularly one, the most insidious, from a crucial moment in the campaign. It takes place in the USA, where Biden and Trump, divided over everything and ready to accuse each other [...]
Opinions #25/24
“G7? In this format, it no longer makes sense. Today, to represent weight and interests at the global level, it has to include a dozen countries.” Valéry Giscard d’Estaing said so. It was 2017, and the inventor of the annual gathering of the world’s “greats” had this to say to [...]
Opinions #24/24
Europe archives its elections with few certainties and many unknowns. Among the undeniable facts is the general tendency of the electorate to shift the political axis to the right in the 27 member states. As a result of the growing dissatisfaction with the economic condition coupled with the constant worry [...]
Opinions #23/24
International public opinion is stunned by the events and prospects dancing furiously on the horizon. In America, Donald Trump’s political and judicial affairs present a disturbing picture of the divisiveness that characterizes the democratic structure of the United States. The taboo on preventive delegitimization of opponent’s victory is broken. The [...]
Opinions #22/24
Deaf to all advice, warnings, and threats, Netanyahu continues to pursue his strategy. Scorched earth in the disputed territories, as Palestinian citizens pay an impressive price for the hunt for Hamas terrorists unleashed by the Israeli army after the October 7 security debacle. A stubbornness that has many personal and [...]
Opinions #21/24
Both the outcome of the eight-month-long war in Gaza and the post-war structure of the occupied territories remain unknown. The operation announced in Rafah continues to raise international concern about the further devastating impact it could have on the Palestinian civilian population. An arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes [...]
Opinions #20/24
In this phase of polycrisis, marked by two wars, the seeds of a new post-war structure are destined to manifest themselves when the guns fall silent. And there are already those who are eager to understand who will lose the most in a dynamic, which, on the contrary, could offer [...]
Opinions #19/24
The bitter ballot box of voting for the British government. Local elections have created a country that is increasingly skeptical and distrustful of the Conservative Party. One after another, four Conservative prime ministers have failed to make the Brexit they favored less of a failure. Frustration that leads to powerlessness [...]
Opinions #18/24
In recent weeks, a new perspective on the conflict in Ukraine seems to be gaining momentum. In the West. Assessing the risk of an indefinite continuation of the conflict with Moscow underscores the limits of the arsenal of possibilities. Along with the usual determination to support Kiev, top Euro-Atlantic diplomatic [...]
Opinions #17/24
Universities are rioting, students get arrested, rectors divided. The Gaza effect is unfolding in American society with unpredictable consequences for the November presidential election. And then there’s the war in Ukraine. By releasing another $60 billion in Kiev’s favor, Biden is trying to celebrate a victory, but his foreign policy, [...]
Opinions #16/24
Campaigning in the USA for the November presidential election is under the lens of fairness. The tug-of-war – whether to pursue Trump or not – is in its early stages, and it remains to be seen which decision will carry more weight in the race against Biden for the White [...]
Opinions #15/24
Washington and Brussels seem to have exhausted their confidence. Ukraine is no longer destined to win the war, but must come to terms with the anticipation of defeat on the battlefield or a substantially crippled “victory.” That is, without territories controlled by Moscow. It is an innovation that political leaders [...]
Opinions #14/24
Macron’s pirouettes and Scholz’s stuttering say a lot about Europe’s difficulties in the face of a crisis on its doorstep. But they don’t say everything. After a brief period, in which they sought to build their “sovereignty” – in the diplomatic, military, financial, technological, and medical spheres – the leadership [...]
Opinions #13/24
This is an epochal turning point. And this time the hyperbole is not exaggerated. The United States removes its shield, and the UN passes a resolution demanding that Israel establish a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu is furious, accusing Biden of retreating from the traditional American position. But what’s [...]
Opinions #12/24
In a scenario that has already been tested, numerous elections scheduled for 2024 will also be characterized by complaints of foreign interference. This will be true for the US presidential election in November, as well as the European Parliament elections in June. A trend where complaints are addressed to foreign [...]
Opinions #11/24
The Israeli army’s military offensive continues no matter what. That is, in spite of… nothing. UN ceasefire resolutions are blocked by US veto. Sanctions against Netanyahu are only hypothetical. The unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by some European governments is still on paper. An embarrassed Biden remains inert. In [...]
Opinions #10/24
The US presidential election is eight months away, but everything is already revolving around that deadline. Pending an understanding of who will be the point of contact in Washington, international politics is proceeding at random. At least on the Western Front. Macron, Scholz, and Sunak are in the agony of [...]
Opinions #09/24
In American politics, crucial questions arise in the run-up to the presidential election in November. Next week, Tuesday’s Republican primary in 15 states will determine the balance of power between Donald Trump and his staunch opponent Nikki Haley, who came out beaten from the polls in “her own” South Carolina, [...]
Opinions #08/24
The current military situation, with one conflict in Europe and another in the Middle East, suppresses every emergency on the planet, starting with the environmental and climate emergency. Even the most virtuous countries have sharply reduced their targets and investments. Dominant is the “exposure” that constantly forces one to address [...]
Opinions #07/24
Surprise, annoyance, resentment. The Russian president’s interview with a conservative American journalist was branded a lie before it was even listened to. A conditioned reflex that even in liberal democracies emerges from afar. Just as the crisis that has turned Ukraine into a battlefield came from afar. A war that [...]
Opinions #06/24
With the election campaign in full swing, the confrontation between Biden and Trump is destined to escalate. The incumbent is reportedly rebuilding his advantage, but he has to deal with Democratic voters concerned about his foreign policy. Meanwhile, the possibility of Trump winning the presidential election in November worries the [...]
Opinions #05/24
“Nothing will ever be the same,” they said after the 2008 economic crisis. Then we repeated this during the covid pandemic. And again, with the war in Ukraine. Now all the innovations that have emerged from these crises seem about to truly change our horizon. Starting with globalization, which needs [...]
