Recent statements by the US presidency on NATO and collective defense function less as a direct assault on Europe and more as a strategic “wake-up call” exposing the continent’s deep unpreparedness and structural vulnerabilities. These remarks can be interpreted in…

The title says “economic security,” but what the document actually delivers is a policy framework for managed openness — a concept that would have been nearly unthinkable in Brussels a decade ago. The shift from unconditional trade liberalisation to strategic…

The €140 billion question was never really about money. It was about whether frozen Russian assets could serve as collateral for Ukrainian reconstruction without crossing the legal boundaries that the ECB is mandated to enforce. The answer turned out to…

The problem of Europe’s shadow economy does not lie in a lack of law. It lies, more disturbingly, in the density and sophistication of law itself. The system described in the investigative report operates largely within the boundaries of legality,…

The war in Ukraine has forced Europe to face a blunt fact: European security still rests heavily on the United States. For decades, the American umbrella allowed European governments to postpone tough decisions on defense. Now, with war on its…

On November 19, 2025, the Dutch government decided to suspend its emergency control over Nexperia, stepping back from the company seizure it had ordered on September 30. The decision was framed as a gesture of de-escalation following “constructive talks” with…

Dark academia: The corporate university Is dying Peter Fleming’s book, Dark Academia: How Universities Die, offers a devastating exposé of the assault waged by neoliberalism on higher education, transforming universities from a crucial public good into an “adjunct of sordid market forces”.…

Modern diplomacy no longer lives exclusively in the realm of treaties, communiqués, or quiet negotiations behind closed doors. It unfolds in the open spaces of public discourse, where states fight for attention, legitimacy, and narrative dominance. In this environment, the…

Overview The Documento Programmatico Pluriennale 2025?2027 (DPP) of the Ministero della Difesa of Italy presents a multiyear programme that goes beyond mere budgetary forecast or procurement plan: it signals a broad strategic posture for Italy’s defence and security apparatus. The…

European defence debates often focus on platforms, ammunition, industrial capacity, and procurement speed. European defence readiness also depends on something more basic and more fragile: energy. European armed forces need fuel to move, electricity to sense and communicate, and resilient…

The Financial Times recently reported that the European Commission has begun setting up a new intelligence coordination unit under President Ursula von der Leyen, in what could become one of the most politically sensitive moves of her second term. The new body—hosted within the…

There is a need for policies that redefine the social covenant, and they are needed at multiple levels: national and international. Some concrete ideas. 1. Understand the type of shock: it is not only that “jobs are missing”, but that…

How Russia learned from failure When Russian troops crossed into Ukraine in February 2022, many expected a swift victory—a demonstration of Moscow’s power and a humiliation for Kyiv. Within weeks, that illusion collapsed. The invasion turned into a series of…

Japan is now pledging that part of its US bound $550 billion trade investment package could help finance a Taiwanese chipmaker, most likely TSMC, to build fabs in America. Why Japan is doing this • Hedging geopolitical risk With TSMC’s fabs concentrated in Taiwan…

In the increasingly complex landscape of international law, strategic litigation has emerged as both a tool for individual justice and a catalyst for systemic change. The workshop “Strategic Litigation in International Law”, hosted by the University of Trento’s Faculty of Law…

The question sounds provocative, but it cuts straight into a real tension: international law presents itself as the law of a community of states, yet the system clearly bends around a handful of powerful players. If international law simply mirrored what…

In the traditional world of machine learning, data has always been the raw fuel. Corporations, research organisations and governments collect it, centralise it and feed it into models that learn to recognise patterns, predict outcomes and make decisions. But what…

1.0 Introduction: the business and regulatory imperative for geolocation The enforcement of region-specific regulations and content policies is a primary operational challenge for global online services. These services must reliably determine a user’s geographical location to tailor content and ensure…

1. Context and relevance The ferry MS Estonia sank on 28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea, with approximately 852 casualties.  The States of Estonia, Finland and Sweden signed on 23 February 1995 the “Agreement regarding the MS Estonia” which designates…

Nineteen sanctions packages in three years. The number alone tells a story about the nature of EU sanctions policy against Russia: not a single decisive blow, but a slow, cumulative tightening that reflects both political resolve and the difficulty of…

The Declaration of the Semicon Coalition marks a decisive moment in Europe’s ongoing effort to consolidate technological sovereignty within the global semiconductor ecosystem. Signed in Brussels on 29 September 2025 by ministers from twenty-seven Member States, the document calls for a “revised and…

Volkswagen AG’s recent production halt at its Wolfsburg plant has become a symbol of how technological dependencies can turn into strategic vulnerabilities. The issue is not steel, labor, or consumer demand — it is semiconductors. The immediate trigger: Nexperia and…

1. Origin and context The term foreign entity of concern emerged within U.S. legislation designed to protect national security, economic interests, and technological supply chains. It appears prominently in: In short, it designates a foreign entity that poses a potential or actual risk to U.S.…

Euro-area evidence from the ECB shows that the 2018 U.S. Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods redirected part of China’s exports towards Europe, consistent with trade diversion. The ECB quantifies non-trivial shifts in export destinations and discusses channels through which…

In recent months China has tightened its export regime for rare earth elements and related technologies, describing these steps as essential to its national security. The change is not a minor adjustment but a structural move that turns China’s dominance…

Who is Nexperia ? Nexperia is a European semiconductor company based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.It produces essential electronic components — diodes, transistors, MOSFETs, and logic circuits — used in mobile devices, automobiles, consumer electronics, and industrial systems.The company is controlled by China’s…

The “snapback” mechanism was the enforcement procedure built into the legal framework of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Its purpose was to ensure that, if Iran was considered to be in serious breach of its commitments, the previous United Nations…