Europe
Germany after Merkel
By Àngel Ferrero · 21/09/2021
The leaders of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had no doubt imagined these elections as a mere formality. The victory in the primaries of the continuity candidate, the president of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, who defeated all of his rivals – including one undeclared, the president of Bavaria, Markus Söder, of the […]
Introduction to Astropolitics: an opportunity for Catalonia?
By Marçal Sanmartí · 13/09/2021
During the last decade, we have witnessed an increasing number of rocket launches and a renewed competition between countries to send probes and even humans into Space. But what’s behind this new Space Race that makes private companies such as SpaceX flourish? Let’s have an introductory look at the intertwined economic and geopolitical reasons behind […]
Catalonia in a post-liberal world
By Miquel Vila · 29/06/2021
The promise of post-Cold War liberal internationalism has been one of the most compelling narratives in our recent history. As we all know, after the fall of Communism, the world promised to be ruled by international law, open and fair markets, multilateral institutions, and universally granted human rights. Ideological and great power competition belonged to […]
Should Catalonia design energy policies looking more at France and less at Germany?
By Daniel Moseguí Gonzalez · 14/05/2021
The EU’s “European Green Deal” did set the very ambitious goal of having Europe become the worlds’ first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The roadmap includes a reduction by 40% of all greenhouse emissions by 2030 as compared to 2019 levels. Hereby, different batteries of policies with strong implications in all sectors of the economy […]
Energy sovereignty and the role of nuclear energy
By Oriol Parera · 04/03/2021
We usually hear vague proposals that would quickly improve the current energy model, lower CO2 emissions, and lead us to a sustainable society in the short term. These proposals then do not materialize for two reasons: the energy dependence on fossil fuels as a determining factor and the lack of pragmatism in the technical and […]
The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: the risks of navigating without a map
By Miquel Vila · 17/02/2021
On the brink of 2021, China and the European Union (EU) signed the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment’s (CAI). The Commission argues that the CAI contains substantial concessions from China that would help balance trade relations and create a level playing field between both economies. China has agreed to open new areas of its economy […]
The European Union is an international organization
By Jofre Rocabert · 29/01/2021
The European Union seems to be living in an almost permanent institutional crisis. But looking at it through a wider perspective, we are still living in the historical period that the French inaugurated when they refused to ratify the constitutional treaty in 2005. The departure of the United Kingdom and the disintegration of freedom of […]
Catalonia’s opportunity in the new Mediterranean equilibrium
By Rosa Cabús · 29/01/2021
During the Cold War, there was complete strategic alignment between the United States (US) and Western Europe, evidenced in particular by the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) so as to prevent a potential military attack from the Soviet Union (USSR) and its satellites, who themselves would later form the Warsaw Pact. Article […]