Subterms
A few days ago, Quaker Oats announced it would retire its 130-year-old brand of pancake syrup and breakfast foods, Aunt Jemima. The company acknowledged that the Aunt Jemima character was based on a racial stereotype. In the aftermath of the decision, other companies, among them Mars Food, followed suit announcing that it was time to […] More
The term soft power was coined by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s as a country’s ability to influence others without the use of force. Soft power is established in culture and grounded in history, unlike hard power, which is based on coercion and the use of military and economic means. Soft power and hard […] More
Six years ago, a political crisis in Ukraine turned into an armed confrontation. Separatists came to power in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, declared their unwillingness to forge closer ties with the European Union and proclaimed the independence of these territories. In April 2014, the new Ukrainian government could have resolved this […] More
Fears of hasty deal to bolster US president’s re-election prospects as EU sidelined Hashim Thaçi, the Kosovo president, marking Liberation Day on 11 June, the anniversary of Nato-led forces entering the country after the 1998-1999 conflict between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and Serb forces. Photograph: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty The presidents of Kosovo and Serbia will meet […] More
Germany is the great latecomer in Western Europe. For much of its history, Germany was a territorial space occupied by dozens of autonomous political entities — kingdoms, principalities, duchies, margraviates, free cities. It was not until 1870 that Germany was united. By then, the world had largely been divided among Europe’s great powers. The German Empire […] More
EU ministers are to discuss the need for greater defence cooperation and a renewed intelligence assessment in the face of a heightened risk of a China-US military confrontation. The call for greater EU defence cooperation comes in a Franco-German joint paper and, although familiar, has been given added urgency by fears in the bloc that […] More
While celebrating the contribution of refugees, we must acknowledge the importance of all who are driven from their homelands not only by fear and terror, but also by desperate need. Human bridges and personal connections have been built by great movements across the globe as people escape war and persecution, hunger both for food and […] More
‘Trump thought I was a secretary’: Fiona Hill on the president, Putin and populism Fiona Hill: ‘What I was most worried about was the toxicity of the issue of Russia.’ Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images She was the White House’s top Russia expert catapulted to fame by Trump’s impeachment. She reflects on her journey […] More
