Insights

On Wednesday, Finland and Sweden submitted official applications to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). For decades, these countries have favoured military non-alignment. So why have they abandoned this stance, and what does it mean for NATO security and wider geopolitical relations?

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there’s been a lot of talk about the return of history. post-1989 assumptions that liberal democracy and open markets were the single models on which most countries would converge now look naïve at best.

This week, the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which has become the main forum for EU-US cooperation on digital policy, met for the second time in Saclay, on the outskirts of Paris. The TTC has played an important role in resetting the EU-US relationship. A tangible example of this improved collaboration was last month’s agreement in principle on a new EU-US data…

A core lesson across infrastructure projects is all too often the attention has been on ambitious targets, rather than the nitty-gritty of delivery. This is timely as we look ahead to the European Commission’s “REPowerEU” plan published on Wednesday. Updating a previously hastily-assembled package in March, this will accelerate plans to reduce and stop fossil fuel imports…

Last week’s price collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra has highlighted regulatory concerns surrounding stablecoins as U.S. policymakers have continued to examine potential policy frameworks for the growing asset class. As of this writing, Terra continues to trade well below its $1 target peg while sister token Luna has also plummeted in value, catalysed by a downdraft…

The modern internet runs on the free flow of data across the Atlantic ocean. But as policymakers push toward different systems for the regulation of data collection, what are the implications of a decoupling of data between the US and EU?

As technology advances and the world pushes to reduce emissions, are we entering a new age of nuclear power?

While the “greenness” of nuclear energy continues to be debated across Southeast Asian nations, energy security concerns are driving countries in the region to revisit their nuclear energy programmes.

The lustre of carbon-free nuclear energy was tarnished after the highly publicised and impactful human-error-related accident at Ukraine’s Chornobyl No. 4 reactor in 1986 and more recently in Japan after a tsunami cut power from critical backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. In Europe, the current dependence on Russian oil and natural gas exports is…

The war in Ukraine has set out - in stark relief - the challenges of the UK’s current energy mix. In response to the conflict and rising energy prices, the UK government released its Energy Security Strategy with proposals for a fourfold increase in offshore wind and an ambition to have at least a quarter of Britain’s electricity provided by nuclear power by 2050.

“Onshoring” chip production is a red herring: the UK should double down on its competitive advantage in R&D and IP to create a secure semiconductor supply chain, new report finds.

As part of their efforts to tackle climate change, businesses are increasingly relying on the buying and selling of credits to offset emissions. This approach was developed at COP26 last year to create new market mechanisms underpinning Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Amid rising concerns that the lack of transparency and oversight of offsets might lead to greenwashing,…

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term in the French elections. But his victory is complicated by the record showing of his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen. With legislative elections looming in June and the intensifying Russia-Ukraine war threatening European cooperation, what did Sunday night tell us about the future of France?

The first meeting of an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) for an international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, was held on 24th February 2022. The first of its kind, the instrument will be rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution, thereby offering high-level mandates to its signatories. While strengthening global…

The last year has seen intellectual property (IP) play an increasingly central role in several policy areas, including the BEIS’s Innovation Strategy and DIT’s post-Brexit trade strategy.

As the world’s biggest international finance institutions, the IMF and World Bank, gathered for their annual Spring Meetings, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, warned of the compounding crises affecting the world. Africa, Georgieva said, was “particularly vulnerable” to the economic upheaval following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It was the must-have accessory for the chattering classes through the early days of the pandemic, but Peloton, the producer of pricey exercise bikes and the poster child of the connected fitness industry, has suffered a post-lockdown fall from grace. 

States set to reap the benefits from federal PFAS infrastructure bill funding