In January of 2021, the U.N. “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”, signed in 2017, came into effect with the view to become a widely accepted legally binding instrument that prohibits nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. More specifically, the Treaty prohibits countries from producing, testing, acquiring, possessing or stockpiling nuclear weapons. It also outlaws the transfer of …

In late May of this year, Lithuania announced it would not participate any longer in the 17+1 format initiated by China to promote its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central and Eastern European countries. Affirmations by Chinese authorities emphasize that it is a cross-regional “cooperation based on voluntarism, extensive consultation,openness a nd inclusiveness” and that it has “brought tangible …

Since 2013, France has sent troops to Mali to help local forces repel jihadist groups, initially with the Serval Operationin response to the Malian president’s request. The 2013 Livre blanc sur la défense et la sécurité nationale describing France’s external strategic and military priorities in terms of defense illustrates the sensitivity of the Sahelian strip. This operation was envisaged by …

Ever since the end of the days of the bipolar world, where the world’s attention was more focused to the great struggle between the two major world powers, – the United States and the Soviet Union –, that many other regional and even international skirmishes have been taking place. The Middle East has been one of the biggest centres in …

The idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a contemporary one and has been gradually permeating the political discourse. Its roots are typically traced to Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) and, since then, the concept of a Universal Basic Income has not only resisted the test of time but has been thoroughly developed and embraced by diverging ideologies (see …

 Euroscepticism empowered by the new crisis. Around the mid-1990s the European Union was as his peak of popularity as measured by Eurobarometer data.[1] The data reflects deeper trends such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War which had had a deep impact on European history in a way given the European Union a …

 Digital technologies and polarization From newspapers to television, the different means through which people share knowledge and information, and their subsequent evolution, have played a major role in shaping peoples’ views (Shanahan et al. 1999, p. 2). With technological developments, we have reached an age where communication and information sharing has never been so fast and widespread. This moulding of …

It has been two years now that Julian Assange has been living secluded in the Embassy of Equator in London. This Wednesday, the co-founder of WikiLeaks has given a press conference by phone call to ensure that he is cooperating with Edward Snowden and to defend his name against defamation attempts. Julian Assange ensured journalists that WikiLeaks is still alive, …

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a veteran businessman and a former spy, meet in person for the first time on Friday in the most highly anticipated encounter on the sidelines of the G20 summit.  Trump has said he wants to find ways to work with Putin, a goal made more difficult by sharp differences over Russia’s …

The U.S. economy added the biggest number of jobs in more than 1-1/2 years in February, but a slowdown in wage growth pointed to only a gradual increase in inflation this year Nonfarm payrolls jumped by 313,000 jobs last month, boosted by the largest rise in construction jobs since 2007, the Labor Department said on Friday. The payrolls gain was …