Valesca Lima argues that Irish local authorities tend to treat public participation as a formal administrative requirement. However, by moving beyond performative box-ticking and toward genuine co-design, we can bridge the trust gap. True engagement doesn't just legitimise decisions; it sparks the local innovation our cities desperately need
Sweden is a social-democratic beacon with one of the world's deepest stock markets. Contradiction? Martino Comelli argues that welfare states actively build financial markets through social policy design. Funded pensions and housing subsidies create investable assets; generous public pensions crowd finance out. The same spending level can produce radically different capitalisms
Donald Trump’s sabre-rattling over Greenland has alienated allies and weakened, not strengthened, the US’ position in the Arctic. If the US is serious about solidifying its Arctic position and rebuilding bridges, it should draw some lessons from the EU’s experience, argues Aslak Veierud Busch
Donald Trump’s coercion of Denmark over Greenland is not just an Arctic dispute. Igor Sevenard and Richard J. Cook argue that by treating NATO allies as real estate vendors, Trump shatters the trust necessary to deter China. Breaking faith in Europe, the US loses credibility in Asia
A Jordan Bardella presidency would represent the most significant reconfiguration of executive power since the Fifth Republic’s founding. Even without a radical policy rupture, the symbolic impact on democratic norms and institutional trust would be profound, including significant risks for the EU, argues John Ryan
Deterrence is back — but not as we knew it. Once a strategy of nuclear restraint, the term is now being stretched to justify aggressive military actions, at home and abroad. Konstantin Schendzielorz argues that, as meanings shift, so do red lines. The nuclear umbrella may be turning into a very real sword
On 4 January 2026, the US announced it will leave dozens of international organisations, many of which exist to protect the climate and environment. Theresa Jedd warns that this America-first policy of international environmental isolationism is disappointing for the world, and could harm the people it claims to protect
Fadhilah Primandari and M. Ammar Hidayahtulloh reflect on the Indonesian government’s response to Sumatra's calamitous floods in November 2025. They argue that when authorities gaslight disaster victims into believing they can handle the consequences, they merely prolong and delegitimise victims’ suffering
At Davos 2026, world leaders no longer spoke as architects of a shared international order, but as actors positioning themselves amid its visible unravelling. Assertions of raw sovereignty stood alongside anxious appeals to law, values, and legitimacy. This, says Süleyman Güngör, reveals a global system drifting decisively away from rules, and towards power
Left-wing populists tend to be inclusionary and egalitarian towards ethnic minorities. But Ugo Gaudino points out that their defence of Muslim communities’ religious grievances often clashes with their secular agenda. While they may de-securitise Islam, they frame other issues and groups as urgent security threats, in line with the populist friend-versus-enemy conception of politics
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