Italy Opts for Turkey’s Bayraktar TB3 for First Carrier Launched Drones
Italy’s acquisition of the Bayraktar TB3 represents new momentum toward continental strategic autonomy while also highlighting failures in the EU’s internal push for drone development.
Italy’s Mattei Plan: Geoeconomic Projection into Africa
The Mattei Plan is a past paradigm of Italy-Africa engagement that the Meloni administration is hoping will help consolidate Italy’s position as Europe’s southern actor in Africa. But complex geopolitical dynamics risk reducing the Plan to yet another initiative whose ambition outpaced its capacity to endure.
EU Races to Adapt to Drone Warfare Era
With the center of tactical gravity shifting toward drones and AI, the EU and its member states are now playing catch-up in a race to improve domestic R&D and production capacity.
Japan Authorizes Fighter Jet Exports under GCAP
Tokyo is taking another step away from its post-WWII pacifist tradition and toward greater defense industry integration with key partners.
Italy’s Mediterranean Jigsaw: Geopolitics of a Sidelined Naval Power
Examining Italy’s favorable geography and the geopolitical clout that it bestows around the Mediterranean Sea. This geography once helped make Italy a major trading and naval power. Will it again?
Challenging the Status Quo? Giorgia Meloni’s Mattei Plan for Africa
Italian investment into Africa has been at best inefficient and at worst ruinous for local populations in recent decades. Will Giorgia Meloni manage to change this, or will the Mattei Plan end up being business-as-usual?
Debt & Downturn Complicate ECB’s Inflation Fight
Though recent data suggests that inflation may have peaked, euro zone economies are hardly out of the woods yet.
Whither Italian Geopolitics under Giorgia Meloni?
The incoming prime minister will be asked to steer the strategic Mediterannean power through increasingly fraught geopolitical waters.
Giorgia Meloni and the New Face of Euroscepticism
Italy’s new prime minister will likely push a softer Euroscepticism that focuses on what Europe can realistically achieve by granting more powers to national governments.
Global Forecast (10-25-2021)
A major lapse of the ‘ASEAN way,’ COVID-19 spreads in China , and Evergrande lives to fight another day.
Backgrounder: G7 Summit in Cornwall, UK
Examining key announcements surrounding this weekend’s G7 summit in the United Kingdom.
Belt and Road Suffers Setbacks in Italy, Australia
Two Western governments scuttled Belt and Road-linked deals this week. Is a trend in the making?
Sovereign Bloat in EU Banking: Prelude to the Next Crisis?
Euro zone banks are hoovering up sovereign debt, and in doing so risk a repeat the ‘death loop’ that nearly tore the monetary union apart in the 2010s.
COVID-19: A ‘Hot Potato’ for Nationalist-Populist Parties in Europe
Europe’s populist parties haven’t thrived amid COVID-19 – but their ideas have.
Libyan Civil War Swings in Tripoli’s Favor
But the longstanding conflict is still far from over. In fact, it might be on the brink of a new escalation from Egypt.
COVID-19: Economic Impact Round-up (4-22-2020)
Recounting the economic damage and government bailouts that COVID-19 has left in its wake.
COVID-19: Economic Impact Round-up (4-15-2020)
Recounting the economic damage and government bailouts that COVID-19 has left in its wake.
Decision Time Looms for Brussels on COVID-19 Response
The upcoming April 7 finance minister summit might one day be looked back on as a turning point in the history of the European Union – for better or worse.
COVID-19: Economic Impact Round-up (3-11-2020)
Recounting global disruptions from the COVID-19 outbreak, along with the growing list of government stimulus initiatives meant to mitigate them.
COVID-19 Economic Impact: Italy
The Italian economy was uniquely vulnerable to recession even before COVID-19 arrived.
