Aspenia Online - international analysis and commentary

There has possibly never been a more difficult time to predict the future of the United States’ economy than right now - seven months into the coronavirus pandemic. In the past two decades, we have grown used to the American economy's enormous and mostly unexpected falls, and to its rapid and robust recoveries, thanks...

Si spara ancora in Nagorno-Karabakh. Mediato dalla Russia fra Armenia e Azerbaijan, il cessate il fuoco non è finora riuscito a far tacere le armi. Può darsi che le continue violazioni di cui entrambe le parti si accusano siano scosse di assestamento, dovute a reciproci tentativi di posizionarsi meglio su un irregolare terreno montagnoso....

Alcuni pensano che aleggi intorno alle nostre democrazie occidentali un profumo che ci riporta all’inizio, o addirittura agli anni ’30, del secolo scorso. In effetti, gli indicatori non mancano. In particolare, una frattura sociale che all’epoca era legata alle conseguenze della rivoluzione industriale e oggi deriva dagli effetti della globalizzazione e soprattutto dalla difficoltà...

In 2017, American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker declared, “I don’t think we are ever going to lose money again.” And yet, three years later, both American and global airline industry prospects are grimmer than ever. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have poured more money into airlines than any other industry...

 Tre eventi in stretta successione hanno segnato una probabile svolta nella marcia di avvicinamento alla prossima amministrazione americana: il primo dei dibattiti presidenziali programmati (30 settembre), la notizia sulla positività di Donald Trump al Covid-19 (2 ottobre), e il dibattito tra il Vicepresidente in carica Mike Pence e la Senatrice Kamala Harris (8 ottobre)....

The Eastern Mediterranean has become a major hotspot for the natural gas industry and geopolitical competition driven by several offshore discoveries in the last decade. These discoveries have attracted increasing interest among several international oil companies and countries. Due to energy ambitions, boundary disputes and regional competition, the Eastern Mediterranean has also become the...

Oil and gas have played a key role in international geopolitics since 1912. The same year, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty of the Royal Navy, decided to convert the fleet from coal to oil to keep pace with the faster German ships. He believed that the cruising speed of the new Queen...

By adopting NextGenerationEU (the €750 billion emergency package meant to boost EU’s post-COVID-19 recovery) the longest-ever (17-21 July) European Council broke the taboo of debt mutualization and thus made history. In doing so, it resoundingly disproved EU’s reputation of congenital incapacity to take major decisions in short time and under pressure. Furthermore, unlike in...

L’ascesa politica di Donald Trump, culminata nell’elezione alla presidenza degli Stati Uniti nel novembre 2016, ha avviato una vera e propria rivoluzione all’interno del Partito Repubblicano. Ricordiamo che, nel 2015, il dibattito interno al partito dell’elefantino era principalmente concentrato sulla possibilità di allargare una base elettorale che, almeno sul fronte delle elezioni presidenziali, si...

After more than three weeks of mass protests against his sixth re-election, it is already clear that Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has been President of Belarus for more than 26 years, lost the political battle over the country’s future. After scenes of barbaric police brutality shocked the world, he is no longer seen as a...

Recent US diplomatic and military moves in the Pacific theater are conveying a strong message to both friends and foes that Washington is determined to preserve the hegemonic status the United States has enjoyed since the end of World War II. The latest confirmation is the addition of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) to...

La globalizzazione è storicamente un processo (per sua natura incompleto e disomogeneo),cioè una dinamica: come tale essa risponde a bisogni o comunque richieste, cioè a una domanda diffusa di certi beni e servizi. L’accelerazione del processo di apertura dei mercati degli ultimi decenni è stata determinata non solo da più rapidi mezzi di trasporto (come...

J.K. Galbraith wrote that “power is as power does”. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, can European policymakers lead and frame a renewed conversation with public opinion across Europe on defense? There will be a myriad of cash-guzzling, debt-ballooning competing priorities. Can political leaders even have a serious and focused discussion with their...