All for my ratings. Nothing against my ratings. Nothing for anyone else's ratings. That, in short, is how one might describe President Zelensky's personnel policy — paraphrasing the well-known saying of the fascist dictator Mussolini.. Why is the appointment and dismissal of ministers by the president a problem in Ukraine? There are presidential republics where the president serves as head of government and may appoint ministers — the United States, for example. However, the

Since assuming the presidency in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has energetically promoted the idea of European ‘strategic autonomy,’ a concept deeply rooted in French international relations theory. It envisages, among other things, the expansion of pan-European collective security mechanisms that would ultimately minimise the role of the United States. Despite the general difficulty of implementing this concept, Paris made substantial progress on one of its key aspects in March 2026

It is common for each side to claim victory following a negotiated peace deal, and the Iranian regime and Trump administration are no exception. Following months of kinetic and economic warfare, the US and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 17 June which formally concludes the conflict and establishes a framework for negotiations towards a final settlement over the following 60 days. To ensure their domestic legitimacy after a costly war, the Trump administration an

Among the first meetings Péter Magyar held after his parliamentary election victory were those with representatives of the Hungarian minorities in Serbia, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. According to László Gubík, the leader of the ethnic Hungarian political party in Slovakia ‘Hungarian Alliance’, the incoming prime minister gave assurances that the policy of supporting ethnic Hungarians beyond Hungary's borders would continue. And indeed it has: on 21 April, in a phone call

China has traditionally occupied a special place in American foreign policy. For a long time, bilateral relations were predominantly based on partnership but over the past fifteen years, they have increasingly been characterised as intense competition or even confrontation. President Donald Trump’s policy combines both the legacy of a long partnership and the new geopolitical realities in which Beijing is frequently set against Washington. US-China relations at the end of the

Ukraine and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf are unlikely partners. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait have traditionally based their foreign policy on balancing security partnerships with Western states, economic ties with Asia, and managing the global oil market together with Russia within the OPEC+ framework. Iran's strikes against Gulf countries have upended each of these dynamics and placed Ukraine in a central position among them. Ukraine can

Throughout Trump’s second term, his administration’s policies towards Ukraine, russia, and transatlantic alliances have been unpredictable and sometimes contradictory. The recently-released National Security Strategy attempts to outline a coherent vision for America’s new relationship with the world. The two-and-a-half pages on Europe are perhaps the most notable part of this vision, with the document’s harshest criticism reserved for its closest allies. Europe is portrayed a