After 10 years of the world turning around Donald Trump, after six years with a malicious narcissist in the White House, with a war he can’t win and inflation he can’t tame, one should think that US-Democrats would easily win the midterm elections on November 6 of this year. But maybe not. They might retake the House of Representatives, but it is by no ways certain that they will also be able to control the Senate. That is because there are still too many members of the party joining the internal fight between the “party establishment” and the “insurgent left” without noticing that they’re only reciprocating the terms and stereotypes used by the media and the populist right. Yes, there is a sizeable shift in the political mood of the country, and Democrats will probably turn Donald Trump into a lame-duck president for the rest of his second term. But if the Democratic Party will find the discipline to select a moderate candidate with progressive ideas to win the presidential election in 2028 is still an open question. 

(Bernie Sanders with supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, March 2016; Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Over the last fifteen years „Larry the cat“ has now seen the 7th British prime minister move into 10 Downing Street where the so-called “Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office” has been residing. From what we can tell the 19-year-old tom cat must be as deeply disillusioned and resigned about British politics as is the island’s population. Now the Brits are wondering if Andy Burnham might be different from the succession of bores, clowns, boneheads and communicative disasters passing through the prime minister’s abode over the last and lost decade. Will Burnham’s policies be a throwback to the Labour Party’s state-centred policies of the 70s or finally bring growth back to a country cursed by Brexit, Covid and a mountain of national debt? Nobody knows. Yet with his attempt to find a left answer to the growing populism of the right - linking his first performative policies to sketches for a wider narrative - the fate of Burnham’s premiership will be a bellwether for the chances of centre-left politics in Europe. (Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel arriving at 10 Downing Street, 20.7.2026)

Unlike most countries the United States have been founded on ideas, not on ethnicity, common language or heritage. When the Second Continental Congress declared its independence from Britain on July the 4th 1776 it referred to principles instead of historical legacies or territorial arguments. But what has happened since then to those “self-evident truths” over 2 ½ centuries, to the promises of the founders, the dreams of the nation and the myths evolving over time? How does the world’s oldest democracy fare after its revolution had turned into secession from the British Empire, after a deadly Civil War and two World Wars, after the Cold War, Vietnam, the social upheaval of the 60s and 70s - and after decades of global hegemony only dissipating in recent times? It has been quite a ride from Thomas Jefferson writing the “Declaration of Independence” over 17 thoughtful days to Donald Trump sputtering out dozens of not evident truths on his own social media platform during sleepless nights.

(Photo: Declaration of Independence. History Painting by John Trumbrull, 1817-19)

Donald Trump would not be president without social media. He was the first senior US-politician to really understand the changes the media ecosystem had undergone between the 90s and when he first ran in 2016. Whilst the gatekeepers of the old media remained arrogant or asleep in their anchor seats and editorships Trump found a new way of communicating to address the grievances of a disenchanted public which had long despised “the media” as part of an establishment that no longer delivered what it promised. And when the liberal elites thought they were done with “the Donald” in 2020 he came roaring back by bridging the generational gap between the traditional conservative crowd watching Fox News and the young “conflict entrepreneurs” on social media. “Fake News” was his rallying cry. The damage done to media freedom and the public sphere will be his legacy – and a generational challenge for his successors to overcome. 

(Photo: President Trump facing the White House press corps during the Iran war, by Daniel Torak)

Barely two years after its decisive victory at the last general election the British Labour Party is in dire straits. Bad results at the recent local elections and the listless performance of prime minister Keir Starmer have led to a leadership race in the party which is currently governing the country to the deep disenchantment of the electorate. Looking for a new face at the top and new policies for its political survival, the Labour Party’s internal divisions but also its intellectual vacuity have come to the fore. After six prime ministers in 10 years the attempt to change the country’s leader whilst being in power has become a very British spectacle. Yet Labour’s current quandary also seems to be symptomatic for social democrats in other European countries. And the similar unpopularity that has befallen other leaders like the German Chancellor seems to be pointing to more structural changes that make governing democratic polities from the centre ever more difficult. 

Photo: Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (2nd right) with prime minister Keir Starmer visiting a local primary school, April 2026. Wikimedia Commons.

How not to write about Africa should be clear after the late Binyavanga Wainaina’s wonderful parody “How to write about Africa” from 2005. Do not treat this vast and complex continent as if it were one country, so his plea. How not to treat Africa should also be obvious after the British “Economist” changed its tune from “The Hopeless Continent” in 2000 to “A Hopeful Continent” in 2013 – and thus getting things wrong twice. But how do you then review an excellent book with the nevertheless preposterous title “How Africa Works” by Joe Studwell another thirteen years on? Well, let’s try! 

(Photo: The old taxi park in Kampala, Uganda)

If the late historian Barbara Tuchman had to add a chapter to her seminal book “The March of Folly” it surely would have to deal with Donald Trump’s senseless war against Iran. It is an arrogant military adventure that will one way or the other finish off his presidency whilst leaving responsible statecraft and geopolitics to Beijing. As a result, soft power is now “made in China”. This is happening at a time when the United States, Europe and Asia are exposed to the China Shock 2.0 to which no Western government has found an answer yet. So, America’s overreach comes at a time when our markets are being flooded by cheap but this time high-end Chinese manufacturing goods. With Trump’s folly and the EU’s powerlessness China is the winner on all fronts.

For a long time, news from and about Pakistan have been bad news. From sponsoring the Afghan Taliban to becoming the victim of their now border-crossing terrorism, from the brief wars with its arch enemy Indian to its ritual requests for IMF credits because of another economic crisis, this fragile, nuclear and quasi-military South Asian state has produced its fair share of negative headlines. Yet now the world has been looking to Islamabad because Pakistan has turned itself into a widely accepted moderator. How did this transformation from rogue state to diplomatic player under Donald Trump’s new geopolitics happen and what does it signify? The demise of American power? The “middle powers” stepping in to mediate the conflicts of the Middle East? China pulling the strings from behind? All these various currents have been coagulating into the now failed peace talks in Islamabad – and will shape their aftermath. 

(Photo: President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir of Pakistan. 25.9.2025, via wikimedia.commons)

When the new geopolitical reality is “might makes right” it is necessary to have a debate about the application of international law to Donald Trump’s unnecessary war against Iran. Doing so is a complicated process to weigh legal against moral reasoning because any conclusion will remain ambivalent. Yes, but…or no, but. It is equally necessary to warn about the impact of attacking the leaders of the illegitimate and murderous regime of the Islamic Republic. Where and when to stop with a war that has started following the long-preached and practiced logic of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu. But even if you are prepared to ignore the tenets of international law and agree with Israel’s right to self-defence you should never leave such a massive gamble with people’s lives and the borders of a permanent crisis zone to the demented warriors who are trying to rule the world from the Pentagon and the White House. No matter how quickly this war against Iran will end, the feeble and fake loyalty to Donald Trump as currently practiced by many European leaders is morally reprehensible, politically stupid, and it will cost Europe dearly. (Photo: D. Trump hosts a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, 3.3.2026, via wikimedia commons)

In two recent speeches the US-President and his Secretary of State have mapped the contours of the “Fantasyland” America has become. In his State of the Union Address before Congress Donald Trump has better described the state of his unhinged mind than the actual situation in the country. And for the global audience at the Munich Security Conference barely two weeks earlier Marco Rubio mapped America’s Foreign Policy goals which looked more like the wishful thinking of the MAGA crowd than a serious geopolitical strategy to address the challenges of a dissipating world order. All of this followed by the war on Iran, the mother of all fantasies. With the second Trump presidency fast approaching its self-destruction the questions for the domestic and the international audience are the same: Which America is the real one - and how to deal with it after Donald’s departure? (U.S. Navy Photo: US guided-missile destroyer fires Tomahawk Land Attack Missile during Operation Epic Fury)

In days like these it is impossible, not to write about the Epstein Saga since it encapsulates so much about America & the West. Its three circles, the money circle, the elite circle and the sex circle are so elaborately intertwined that their intersections tell us much more about power in our neo-liberal societies than we ever wanted to know. In our myriad illusions about consensus, rule of law and stability in post-war democracies we could not believe that the division, illegality and destruction of Trumpism could enter our peaceful sphere. Nor did we imagine that our elites had reached a state of moral degradation that in our naïve minds had been reserved for the Romans in times long passed. (Photo by Geoff Livingston, “No Kings” Demonstration, 18.10.25, licensed under Creative Commons Int. License)

On January 15 Uganda has voted. President Museveni has been declared the winner with nearly 72 per cent of the vote, yet nobody knows the real result. The opposition candidate Bobi Wine went from his house arrest straight into hiding and the President’s son, who is the head of the military, has vowed to kill him. Unlike in the neighbouring Tanzania three months ago the disaffected youths of Uganda have not gone into the streets to protest the rigged election results only to be killed by security forces in the hundreds. There is an eery political quietness in Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala after two more East African countries have now moved from fake democracy to open autocracy. “Why do we bother to vote” not only the members of Generation Z are asking themselves in this East African neighbourhood, waiting for the cauldron of suppressed anger to explode. Somewhere. Some time. May be even soon.

(Photo: The young President Museveni meeting US-President Ronald Reagan at the White House. in 1987)

When Donald Trump’s narcissism is reaching new geopolitical hights, it might be the moment to think about the damage being done, not only to the hard-hit international order, but to the United States itself; to look at the President not as the harbinger but saboteur of America’s future; and to focus on the characters and influence peddlers who are thriving under his erratic, contradictory and at times brutally honest tutelage. Trump’s most recent bout of backward-looking energy imperialism will hopefully teach the rest of the West what the grandiose promises and retrograde policies of the radical right will finally amount to: namely to a weakening of the nation in the “Great Game” of global competition. 

Almost one year into his second presidency Donald Trump has oozed vengeance and violence like a deranged human being. By blaming the victim, the left-leaning film director Rob Reiner, for his own murder and using a family tragedy in Hollywood for his self-aggrandizement the president has taken his malignant narcissism to a new level. But this is only the last case in a growing list of moral transgressions which encourage the MAGA movement’s lust for cruelty with traditional conservatives barely distancing themselves. Why does he get away with unlawful acts and vile language which seemed unimaginable in a democratic environment just a few years ago? Why doesn’t Trump’s obvious derangement lead to open resistance, spontaneous demonstrations, renewed calls for impeachment or a dramatic turn in the polls. Why are his political opponents so helpless and why does the general public just play numb?

“Make Europa Great again” by deriding its weakness is the rallying cry of Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) of December 4th. “America First” as remaking Europe in MAGA’s image has become a new goal of US geopolitics. And the rest of the 33-page pamphlet is returning to 19th century thinking by dividing the world into spheres of influence. Yesterday’s China-threat is being reduced to pure economic competition. Russia is allowed to return to its Soviet or earlier imperialist roots. And the “Western Hemisphere” belongs, as ever, to the United States of America under a rehashed version of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. That the strongman in the White House, the wheeler-dealer in real estate likes partitioning the world into plots which can be exploited by their respective overlords does not come as a surprise. But where does his and MAGA’s disdain for Europe come from? 

You wouldn’t have thought that the first real rebel under the reign of Donald Trump would be a pro-gun, pro-white men, pro-life, ultra-Christian, anti-Muslim and antisemitic MAGA-proponent and mother of three who in the past has claimed that the world is controlled by a network of satanic paedophiles funded by George Soros and assisted by Hillary Clinton. But it was exactly this rabid US-Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene whose challenge to the US-President in a powerful 11-minute video laid open the subterranean fissures of the right-wing movement – and raises the question what future there is for MAGA after Donald Trump

„SEDICIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH”, Donald Trump posted this week on his “Truth Social” platform. The embattled President was reacting to a video in which six Democratic lawmakers with a background in security reminded members of the military that they do not have to follow illegal orders. Or to put it another way, the US-President who has politicised the military more than any recent predecessor - and as a young man avoided conscription on spurious grounds - accuses six Members of Congress, who all have served in the Army, Air Force, Navy or the CIA, of treason because they referred to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the US-Constitution where it is inscribed that members of the military must not follow illegal orders and take an oath to the constitution, not the president. This vicious dispute in the contaminated political environment of current US-politics raises the question of the price of loyalty.